Forager

I play mostly natural origin/themed characters. My personal criteria for choosing technology instead is the tech they use is very unique to them.

Yikes... a lot of real estate between those two examples as far as the quality of the execution lol. I didn't mean nearly as subversive or complicated as those attempts. I just mean joining the story in media res. Literally just switching mission 1 and 2 out of 5 and making 2 a flashback. Some stories are just better that way, but I'm worried about the player missing the indication that the mission is a flashback. Where would you put it?

Has anyone had any measurable success with a nonlinear narrative? I don't mean did the author think it was a good arc; I mean did the players get it? Looking for specific examples.

This thing cured my builder's block! Thanks.

I won't discuss the plot since there's a series of gags and twists. I did laugh out loud at the "Obviously..." send off line. The custom enemies are fun. They were very vibrant and didn't feel like CoH enemies. I had a little slow-down on the Portal Corp map that was partially my fault, partially the engine's. I can't really speak on the difficulty as the character I used is fairly powerful. All in all, fun romp. I got an added bonus in the form of a color combination for my own character that I never thought of, courtesy of a clone.

This is excellent feedback. It is so good that I have taken nearly every single line under advisement and made changes based on a lot of what you said. Thank you for the time and care you took with it. I would like to address all of it individually, if you care to read my responses. But the TL:DR question I have is "What alignment would you set this as?" The second mission is going to be a sticking point for a lot of people, but I believe that the best choice is almost always show, don't tell. Your guess about Rule #2 was pretty spot on, but I added the "Rules" as clues to the mission in case someone doesn't get it immediately. As for the timer, I know that most people do not play to be tested in this way. I'm ok with it. The timer is supposed to induce stress. Same thing with the targetable bystanders. By the way, did that mom actually attack you? Or did she just run at you and you got scared lol? Your notes about replay are very encouraging. A goal was to make it hard, but replayable so it wouldn't feel like a punishment. Lastly, there's no argument about the story. I didn't create a version without the first two missions because I thought they were superfluous. I thought they lacked replay value.

Chun Li is definitely natural.

I just looked at your stuff to try and figure out what it is you think missions are supposed to look like and I think I understand why you didn't like mine. Carry on, sir lol.

Edit: cranebump put out the fire. Thank you for the review. It was strictly the accusation of the story being illogical that set me off. Hack n' slash is definitely fair. The character's motivation? That is and always will be yours to determine.

It's a frantic search during absolute chaos in a rapidly devolving scenario. It should have a timer. You're not even supposed to be there. It should be challenging. You're a low level hero working with Daniels doing hero work and he goes missing. You go find him. That is a logical story. To say there was no logical story is baseless. It was very clearly explained what you were doing in short paragraphs with small words.

Just to clarify... This is difficult content. If you don't like difficult content, you shouldn't play it. I explained it was difficult in the description. I marked it as challenging. I gave extra warnings in the post here. The description literally says that the heroes are in over their heads. Some people prefer challenging content. Sorry if this seems repetitive, but I never imagined that someone could see a mission marked challenging, click it, ,then give it a low rating because it was challenging. I don't know how to make this more clear and I would like to avoid wasting anyone's time.

This has been a great resource. Thank you for doing this. It's not only saved me a lot of time, it's given me more ideas!

Arc ID: 65609 Galaxy Schmalaxy: Constellation Row Level 10-20 Alignment: Rogue (Unless you're very careful) Challenging, Story Focused Content designed for solo or small groups of street-level heroes WARNING: Difficult Alignment Choices "During the attack on Galaxy City, a group of new heroes narrowly escaped with their lives. They were told to go find work that was appropriate for their security level. Most of them were happy to let the Phalanx handle the meteors and the monsters, but some are still fighting to get back in. [SFMA]" WARNING: The first room is especially hazardous. There are targetable bystanders and cops, so be careful if alignment is important to you. Stealth and staying out of the crossfire is helpful. You can avoid the Trolls and police The final mission is a bit of a deconstruction and hopefully a more realistic take on what a mission like this would look like. You are given a lot of freedom to choose, with only 2 required objectives. The boss fights are hard and death is likely, though they can be avoided. Also, since the last mission is timed, I also put out a version with that mission by itself and the optional objectives given more clues and explanation. This is in case anyone particularly enjoys it or wants to try and find all the hostages, but doesn't want to do the first two missions in the arc. It's Arc ID 65610 and is called Constellation Row (Finale Mission Only, Challenge Mode)

That is really helpful feedback, @ZamuelNow thank you so much. I definitely need to rework the issue you mentioned with treating a character like they are stupid. I really want the player to understand that Forager is stupid, not them lol. I tried to turn him into the world's worst contact, but I put a lot of that burden on the player rather than the character. I'm pulling back on all the trickery and cutesy stuff with the nav bar. I am definitely trying to subvert too many things at a time for my first arc. I also am going to make it much more obvious and impactful when it's used for radio chatter. It's a trick, so I shouldn't abuse it. I am blown away by how insightful and useful all the feedback has been so far. Am I even on the internet?

I reach too far. That's what the box is for and I should use it as such. I'm burdening the player trying to be cute.