Take One

I'd like a way to mark an objective so that it becomes visible on the minimap from the start, like a checkbox or something: "Show this objective on the map." It could also be another option in the drop-down menu where you pick if the objective will fade in or out or not. If this option is chosen, the objective would show up on the minimap as the objective spawns, to make it easier for the player to find. Sometimes this makes sense for the story, and we have seen similar technology in the "main" game so it's not like it's unheard of.

Criticism is one thing, ratings another. I invite all critique of my arcs, which are easily found by following the instructions in my signature. I have already explained why star ratings are bad, not just because a one-star rating skews the score of a perfect 5-star arc disproportionally but because nobody can agree on what the stars actually mean. This arbitrary and subjective madness is vastly inferior to what I suggested. Everyone can agree on what "recommended" means, unless there's some kind of language barrier.

Sometimes when you're playing a story arc someone has made, there might pop up a bug or other issue that makes it impossible to proceed. Instead of wasting GM time to try to figure out what went wrong and fix it - if that's even possible, I heard that GMs can't really work with Mission Achitect missions, but that might just have been misinformation from the days of Paragon Studios. Anyway, I figured that there could be a button in the Mission Architect controls that would let us complete a mission so we can proceed to finish the arc. I spent 4 hours today trying to get a third glowie to spawn in a huge outdoors map, over and over again, and I got really frustrated starting over repeatedly to try to get the glowie to appear. In any case, auto-completing a mission would of course forfeit all the completion rewards and only have the benefit of letting us get past a broken or too difficult mission so we can complete a story arc. This button already exists in test mode, so what I'm asking for is simply to have this same button available during actual play.

I just realized a perhaps simpler option to fix this faction. All the unique named individuals in the faction should be marked so as not to auto spawn, much like we can mark bosses and AVs in our custom factions to not auto spawn. Also the unique individuals without a proper name, such as the Tsoo tattoo artist, who is an individual but doesn't have a name, should be marked in this fashion. Like in the screenshot below: That would just leave the truly random civilians to spawn, and still letting us place all the available characters deliberately. Unless I misunderstand how the "random" choice works, or there's a difference in how our custom factions and the game's standard factions work, or in how "persons" spawn compared to bosses/EBs/AVs. It would have the added benefit of not needing a new separate faction.

I really like Fusionette too. Maybe I should play that arc. I have now tried to finish mission 2 three times, but the third clue just can't be found. I have killed everything except the two AVs (even though I wasn't supposed to kill anything), I have created a macro for targeting "clue" and scoured the map, but it's just not there. Three times I have found the first two clues almost immediately, the third is not there. How???

A single 1-star review will nuke a 5-star rating and you will need four more 5-star ratings to get back to 4.5 stars which will show as 5 stars (I think, maybe you even need five 5-star ratings to make up for each 1-star, depending on how the results are rounded.) This isn't the live servers and getting less than 5 stars on your arc isn't as much of a death sentence as it used to be - rather, all our story arcs are still-born as long as the first X pages of the AE are filled up with farms. I'll just keep asking that the stars system is replaced with a "thumb up" or "like" system, so there is no way to leave a negative score, and only a way to leave a positive score. An arc's rank would then be determined by the number of likes/number of plays ratio.

You can set up Allies or Allied boss objectives who have their "conversation" in their Information field. You would have to give some meta-instructions in the mission briefing or the mission start popup to let the player know that they have to read the info to have the conversation.

Your data might have been relevant if that was what my diagram referred to. Obviously my diagram wasn't showing the number of players at any one time, but rather the amount of overlap in the population. A few play only heroes, a few play only villains, but I'm fairly sure the majority plays both sides at different times. What we're trying to do with this thread is to come up with reasons for people to play red-side more often.

Let me try an illustration:

It's the same population. We're all players here. Many people play both sides.

This might be accomplished by having the WST fluctuate between Red-side and Blue-side with one neutral option each week, instead of what we have now. So week one, we get a blue TF and a co-op one, week two we get a red SF and a co-op one. And so on.

The mind-controlled civilians don't have a description. A simple line like "This individual seems to be under the snakes' control" would suffice. Mission 2 has a much higher max level than the others, and no clue attached to it. Mongoose's information could be in the form of a clue, for example. The level range can be set under Mission Parameters for each mission. It's usually best if the range is the same for all missions, unless there's a good reason for changing them around (like a flashback scene, or maybe some kind of effect that diminishes the character' power). Mission 5 has a strange typo with a long line of %-symbols in the briefing text. The scattered collectible items which had started out as grey seemed to activate randomly which was interesting but I didn't click them all to see if it would reveal something. I guess they were set to activate at the death of the boss and were just "dungeon dressing"? I liked the story, it was a simple introduction to the snakes, which still took you around a bunch of locales. The mechanics were simple but effective, and immediately showed that these snakes could control people. At this level range you don't need to get too complicated.

I played it too and while I agree that this is the case, I just considered it a comedy trope and actually enjoyed it. on the whole I did play on an unusually high difficulty for me, so much of my enjoyment came from trying to figure out what combination of inspirations I would need to bring to overcome the obstacles, and also that I had to use incarnate powers I usually forget that I own. The story was predictable but at least it was internally consistent, we learned things on the way and deployed that information to reach a final victory, so I'd say we grew as characters. Even if we had to carry the biggest idiot ball known to hero-kind.

Okay, based on comments in this thread, I will now add some actual head-canon of mine, and not just wishful thinking. Nemesis recruits most of his army not from Primal Earth but from other dimensions he has access to. Most of his activities are probably not even happening on Primal Earth but in other dimensions where he might be ruling the world or fighting against its rulers, or simply hiding his activities much like on Primal Earth. His war against versions of himself spills over to Paragon City only once that we know of, but there's no reason to think that it isn't constantly happening in the reverse, i.e. Primal Earth Nemesis invades, kills and takes over the organisation and army of the Nemesises of other worlds. Nemesis is using the Shadow Shard as a safe place to hide against incursions from other dimensions. The Shadow Shard is difficult to access, and was found more or less by accident by Portal Corp - possibly because it was created from Primal Earth. It's possible and even likely that it can't be accessed from other dimensions. This means that Nemesis can stash his armies there, and protect them from being captured or subverted by other Nemesises from other dimensions. (Apparently Praetor Tilman and Malaise managed to visit the Shadow Shard at some point, which kind of bursts this bubble of mine a bit. Unless Praetorian and Primal Earth are somehow entwined due to the many portals connecting them, which would allow Praetorian Earth to open portals to the Shadow Shard. Ah, head-canon restored.) Sub-dimensions that are locked to other dimensions and only accessible from them seem to be uncommon, unless there is something special about Primal Earth that allows Portal Corp to access them despite this. Prime candidates for a sub-dimension would be the version of the Shadow Shard that was created by Black Swan and the Quill of Jocasta, and the Black Shroud dimension which supposedly powers Nightstar, but Portal Corp is able to access them so my theory about them being locked to and only accessible from Praetorian Earth doesn't seem to apply. Unless there is something special about Portal Corp or Primal Earth. There is something special about Primal Earth's dimension. It's not just that our characters live there or that it's where the game is set, but something else is going on that makes it a special place to be, and the dimension where a lot of activities are going down. It's likely that this specialness would have been revealed at higher Incarnate levels, or beyond, as our characters moved from being merely world-shakers to dimension-shakers and owners and rulers of entire universes ourselves. But we'll probably never know for sure. For now, I'm just going to claim that Primal Earth is special because it is easier to access from other dimensions, and vice versa. It could be a dimensional nexus that way, and if allowed to continue to exist, could become an important hub in interdimensional affairs. The demons summoned by the Circle of Thorns seem to exist in a Hell dimension that is the same for many other Earths - at least for both Primal and Praetorian Earth, since there is a version of Infernal in both worlds. My belief is that the demons of this Hell world were locked in there by the Dimensionless (literal angels), after some kind of cataclysmic cosmic battle, and that they are constantly trying to escape in order to regain their former power and take up the fight against their ancient foes once more. It is my belief that in a far future issue of CoH, the demons would have been released or escaped en-masse, and our characters would have to pick a side in their war, the rewards of which would turn our characters into Dimensionless beings as well.

After giving the press conference in WWD, I walk out, open a portal to Ouroboros and go back in time to before Darrin Wade was born. By punching his father in the mouth, I make his mother fall out of love with him, BTTF-style, and I return back to a new timeline. Statesman and Sister Psyche are still dead, but from reasonable causes, and oops, now we're at war with Praetoria. Darrin Wade never existed to foul up my beautiful game with that ridiculous arc, Maria Jenkins' and Tina McIntyre's arcs can make sense again, and there's no doubt about when exactly during the Praetorian invasion Statesman actually dies.

Sorry, I forgot what this thread was about. Of course, that makes perfect sense!

The Council have finally been driven from Peregrine Island and are no longer available in radio missions in that zone. Instead, Crey, Devouring Earth, Nemesis Army and UPA will appear in radio missions. The Rikti have evacuated the beaches of Peregrine Island. In their place we find beach-wear Carnival of Shadow troupes entertaining themselves in the sand and the waves, when they aren't dodging the Devouring Earth creatures who seem to be getting bolder, and more powerful... Remove Rikti spawns, add Carnival spawns, make DE in Peregrine go all the way up to 50. This will make Carnie hunts much easier and make more sense, since the RIkti have a whole zone of their own and don't really need to encroach on the other level 50 zone. It will also make sweeping for DE more enjoyable for level 50 characters. Portal Corp has devoted some funds to security and given Unai Kemen some much needed assistance in the form of Vanguard soldiers, moonshining as guards around the complex when they aren't busy fighting the Rikti invaders. Unai can now focus his attention outward on thwarting potential threats from other dimensions before they get a chance to grow too powerful. After finishing his arc and other missions, Unai will provide endless repeatable Portal Missions for level 50+ characters, which will be incarnate level content where you can really let loose. Visit all the favorite dimensions like Axis Amerikkka, Council Empire, Peaceful Oranbega, The Hydra Dimension, Werewolf World and more, and fight the creatures living there for fun and profit! Let this be the new farming hotspot so the AE can be abandoned by farmers and finally become a haven for storytellers.

Except all he can do is feed on himself, trapped in a strange feedback loop of dying over and over. All that sweet power doesn't go anywhere. Ley seem more like a natural phenomenon connected to the spirit realm and its interaction with the material world than anything the gods or spirits would create or control. Lughebu might have found the place and orchestrated the whole trap scheme, but Dream Doctor's plan circumvents it and makes sure Mot doesn't end up as food for anyone other than himself.

Anything is possible but winged horses aren't very "nordic", and Valkyrie isn't known for having any interest in any kind of industry. Or any other interests. At all. Well, maybe she has hobbies we didn't know about and for some reason decided that the Rogue Isles was the perfect place for her nanite factory, and the spill-water is somehow laced with arachnoid-juice and turns people into weird radioactive zombies. Maybe. It would certainly make Valkyrie a more interesting character!

I just wanted more cool snow-covered maps when we go to Antarctica to fight the Council. Maybe even a snow-and-ice zone.

The Council have bases all over the world, Striga just happens to be the closest one to Paragon City. Their main base is of course located on Antarctica and from there the Center controls everything in a new global empire that he is forming while Recluse was busy competing with Statesman and everyone was busy fighting Praetorians. Now that Statesman is dead, and Red Widow is alive, Lord Recluse is once again turning his gaze away from Paragon City and thinking about the rest of the world. Inevitably the two groups will clash, when the Center decides that the Rogue Isles would make a much more comfortable and accessible world head quarter than Antarctica. Having already eradicated the remnants of the 5th Column, they know exactly how to deal with splinter groups. Warburg is the first to fall, and the rogue Arachnos there are quickly integrated into the Council ranks, pulled apart, investigated, and put back together again once their loyalties have been adjusted. Any useful Arachnos technology is reverse engineered and put to better use. And of course the Warburg nuke factories are reactivated. From Warburg and Striga, the Council now wage war on the Rogue Isles, starting with Sharkhead where they already have a beach-head.

I only played it once so that information passed me by. A little annoyed by it though. First Ward should turn into Last Bastion. First to Last, you see? It makes sense.

Gotta wonder why people would drink from the cesspool to begin with, unless there's a lack of clean water on Mercy island. Maybe it's a gang of desperate thugs with some kind of initiation ritual that make new members drink from the pools "to gain superpowers". Those who drink more often might gain power within the gang. Until they eventually succumb to the effect of the waters. Pure speculation but maybe the factories are responsible for some kind of food production, and the downtrodden believe the cesspools hold some nutrition. Could also be some kind of addictive substances in the water. It's apparently irradiated too. Could it be coolant from a reactor that is flushed out into these pools? Or maybe this is where Arachnos creates a synthetic form of water from the Well of Furies that is supposedly used to create the Arachnoids in Project Fury. That would mesh well with Doctor Geist's experiments, and the Arachnos shipping containers. Mercy Island is also the hiding place for another Incarnate, Stheno, the Gorgon, progenitor of the Snakes. Maybe they have found a way to tap into her well-hidden deep underground lair somehow, or the Earth magic she supposedly knows, in order to synthesize the Well water. The logo is a pegasus. Pegasus was supposedly created from the blood of Medusa after Perseus cut off her head. Medusa was another gorgon. Is this why Arachnos have a bounty on snakes, but don't try to eradicate them completely, so they can use their blood/DNA/essential salts/venom to create synthetic Well water???

Ah, you mean after the fall of Cole. I'm sure Hamidon could be that ruthless but maybe it isn't focusing on finishing off the last remnants of humanity now that the world is basically theirs. As evidence, there's the arc set in First Ward where the player goes back to try tro establish a stronghold and protect the place from the Hamidon monsters surrounding it. I don't doubt that Hamidon could destroy that place if it brought all of its forces down on it - but it doesn't. It wouldn't make for much of a story if it did, I suppose. There are other countries (Neo Tokyo is mentioned at some point), but an emperor rules over an empire, which usually consists of several countries. A soldier in Rome (the city) could talk about countries outside of Rome, which are still a part of the Roman empire.

As far as I know there is nothing outside of Cole's regime. Maybe there was a few dissenting nations back when the rest of the world elected him Emperor, but I'm assuming they were easy pickings for the Devouring Earth.