cranebump

If you’re comfortable with game play, you might try villain play instead. Stories are generally better, since it came out later. If you want more narrative choices, that’s Goldside (Praetoria). That said, if you follow contacts Habashy, Stockwell in Kings Row, The Hollows arcs starting Wincott, then Faultline starting with Jim Temblor, you’ll see some good stories. Laura Lockhart inn Steel Canyon is a great arc. The new content is also very good (or at least interesting?). That said, this may not be your jam. Nothing wrong with that. (interesting…your comments on what you don’t like here echo mine about Neverwinter (gather X widgets, defeat X number of this type enemy, go inside a structure and kill a boss). Maybe stuff is better behind the paywall on that one.)

Running a Rogue MM, I zoned in to Nerva, had a LONG flight across the zone to contact Naylor. When I turned toward the nav point, I saw a long line of Rikti ships, flying one behind the other, slightly offset, gliding over the water, dropping their bombs. It was freakin’ majestic. Woulda taken a screenshot, but I seem to be out of space to paste it. (After gawking for a bit, I got the f*** out of there and joined a Synapse team. Didn’t think those guys wanted me in their convoy. Especially since they took pot shots at my poor, stupid zombies.)

It’s not how I’d want to play, either (I’m much more with the “it’s the journey” team [though I try not to be completely useless]).:-) As you said, though, who am I to argue? And it really does seem like getting to that level of near-to-full-invincibility is not hard to do these days. If that’s what the player wants. I mean, I’m nowhere close to being a build expert, but I have 1 pretty tough tank. Pretty sure, though, that it’s chicken scratch next to what a real pro can do.

Bumping just cuz.

If I ever take a long break, I’ll let you know:-)

I guess it's a hard question to answer, then, since the OP mentions "feeling heroic," which is subjective, at best. The examples given, above, indicate that "heroic"="invincible." You can certainly create a character like that, if you want to. You can also create a character who's "heroism" is pushing through the odds, suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune (and by opposing, end them [albeit bloodied, at times]). In short, you can most certainly conjure an efficient, invincible killing machine (though you're not going to be dumpster-herding entire maps anymore). If that's the type of character you want. In fact, considering the speed at which teams run through TFs these days, I'd say your specifications are likely already fulfilled. I DO agree that the only way to know is to just play the game to find out. There's a ton of guides and such out there to take you where you want to be.

If you want to be invincible, there's ways to do it. I solo a lot, and don't see solo play as being killed off on default settings. If anything, you're likely to have to pump up the diff to get the level of challenge you want. I'm a pretty casual player, but I've been defaulting to +0/x2 for every toon, and cruising along through most of it (those low level Vahz can be a bit of a pain, if you're not careful).:-)

I can understand and accept your counterpoints to story vs. level design (though, if you get the former right, in addition to the latter, I feel the end product is superior). There are some arcs out there that are design experiments. That's not how I approach it, though, so any advice I give is going to focus on what I think I know, versus what I can't speak to. Anyhoo, that stuff all makes sense to me. On the one above, though? I'm going to have to hold to my original criticism. The boss fight occurs at the tail end of the entire arc. We're talking THE big boss. Yet, to fully defeat them, the designer wants me to chase them through the hallways. While they're speeded buffed. Through Oranbega's twists and turns. And I'd have to detach myself from her mob that's attacking me to go into a tactically disadvantageous position (as they're likely to follow and hit me from behind [which would be a BIG concern if I were running, say, my blaster). THAT's the issue. It isn't like I failed, per se. The boss didn't hurt me at all. And if they'd stayed on the map somewhere, or not turned Barry Allen on me, I'd have tracked them down and finished the job. But they didn't. They just ran like hell to the nearest exit. POOF! I assume the designer wanted to give me some sort of challenge. But it doesn't work that way, as designed, because they're gone before I can catch them. I'm not even sure using an AT with holds would help all that much, since they're a boss, and likely to be immune anyway (or let's say I hold them, but then I can't damage them enough with a control AT to bring them down so...same effect [and anyway, I shouldn't have to switch ATs just to complete the arc). In the end, it felt like the designer just didn't want me to "win," so I didn't. Technically, I succeeded, because I accomplished the mish objectives. But putting a big boss in the mish in the first place signals to me that you want me to battle. So sending them off the map in the finale (the finale) is just, well, it's both a poor story and design choice (bear in mind I'm talking specifically about the Vampire story, not the ninja one -- haven't run that one). And just to be clear about how I run these things: I usually run on default settings. I also don't get all butthurt if I just fail. If I have failed, and it the situation merits it, I'll stock up on big insps before I go back in, just to finish off a tough fight. If I thought I needed help, or needed to reduce settings, I would do so. For this one, though, I was running an exemplared Incarnate Tank at +0/x2. I was never in danger. I wasn't going to fail the boss fight. That said, there was just no way I could navigate the hallways as fast as the boss did when she ran off with her speed buff. I'm just not that good at flying fullspeed through maps (esp. tunnel-type ones). Failure? It's no biggy to me. I'm not so puffed up on superiority that it's an affront to lose. A real challenge is good sometimes (as in the last Pos1 team I was on, when we got wiped by our dupes, our leader bailed out, and the rest of us remained to chip away at it till we were victorious). That said, there's a difference between me just failing and the Kobayashi Maru. I'm generally not running AE mishes to build character (nor are many other players, I believe). While I respect your suggestions, I still think this arc would be better served if the ultimate big bad guy didn't wuss out and run off. Let the wookie man, man.:-)

Alright, who unlocked the high chair again?

I have a Fire/Atomic blaster based on a similar theme that I have enjoyed (when I've played him). Some good secondary powers in there, and you can drop FI-YAHHHHHHH! on everything.

I’ll put it on my agenda:-)

If it’s a typical AE mish, all of the targets’ text pops at once, unless they’re located in different floors (and even then, it no guarantee they won’t). This means that even the text isn’t always helpful, unfortunately. I wouldn’t know how it came out in this one, though.

Sometimes?:-)

Seed gives REALLY valuable advice, when it comes to writing and refining stories. Everything you do is practice that can affect other things you may do. For example, working within the confined space of AE text boxes and 5-chapter arcs is excellent training for plot development. You learn to whittle out the chaff and focus on the throughline. That sort of hyperfocus is essential to building tight plots in other styles/genres. “The Poetics” pushes “plot first” for a good reason. If the story makes no sense, nothing else I do can save it.

Just a shout out to our own @LordRassilon, who runs the "Late Show" on Twitch (keeping Snarky hours).:-) You've got lowbie levelling, viewer's choice, Redside rambling, and weekly TF/SF's and AE plays (speaking of: play Rass's Heart of Words trilogy -- it's outstanding). You'll also see near nightly Yins and Doc Aeons. There's a player's choice night, as well. Plus, various reviews, build discussions, film dives, and dramatic readings of player bios. Best of all, you can hop in and join the mirth and (casual) mayhem with a friendly and knowledgeable team leader. Highly recommended. Go there. Now. https://www.twitch.tv/mollymauk76

No. You’ll always get large insps, even at level 1.

I wanted to respond to some of Kyksie's observations, now that I ran the arc: Kyks sez:...The player is greeted by Van Helsing, who tells the player that vampires have invaded Paragon, check it out pretty please? The player journeys to various locales and battles vampires, who are a custom group with varied powers, and are for some reason obsessed with Maemae van Whooters, a minor character form the Television arc. Honestly, I couldn't figure out why they were obsessed by her, either. The arc's customs are pretty good. There's some nice diversity in maps and such. But the villains motivations eluded me all the way through. I thought maybe I missed a key clue somewhere. That said, if it IS key, I feel like it should be super obvious. Even so, I won't discount the possibility that I just missed it somewhere. Kyks sez: EDIT: also, one mission has several EBs who are set to flee, making them almost impossible to defeat, which I found kinda annoying. Including the big bad end boss. She ZOOMED off. With a burst of speed. The rescue objective was right next to the EB, so I stayed to clear everything and finish the rescue, and the mish. But...I had the boss whittled down and was going to kick her ass when she buzzed off, leaving me feeling unsatisfied as a player. Kyks has a legitimate observation here. Kyks also said the customs were good, and I agree. I just wonder why the designer wants me to chase bosses. It's like I have to "earn" the privilege of defeating them. If a player makes it that far, it feels unfair to snatch victory from them (and for no real reason -- unless the NPC is supposed to survive for a follow-up arc?). P.S. Didn't see a lot of spelling errors. But there was a pervasive lack of carriage returns (no spaces between paragraphs). Easy Fix. It’s mechanically sound, and brisk, and has humor. Good for players looking for a light diversion.

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Clues are important. I have a separate screen open during AE mishes, just for NPC text. I haven't run the mish, so I don't know what the map looks like as far as size (in the "Lake" mish I ran, above, I did have that city map from in-game missions like the one where you have to set or find multiple scanners -- that map is a pain in the ass for searches, though I now know the most common drop points.). That said, if I wanted to make sure the player could spot my NPC on a big map, I'd try to have them captured in the green, floating field, or have the bad guys using the tech scanner. Doesn't look like that would work in a ninja arc, though.:-)

Seconded. I was going to suggest a fire blaster of some kind, but this would be a nice combo, with good defense. Burn, baby, burn!

“Time wasters” include having a bunch of collection glowies just to keep the player clicking stuff. We’re talking something like having a dozen when, say 2-3 will suffice. On the other hand, if the player is searching for something specific, say “Formula 309” hidden in a warehouse, then more than a few is probably justified. For me, a glowie with no text at all is a time waster, because it doesn’t contribute anything to the story. Those are sometimes just errors though. You’re right about people’s expectations being frustrating sometimes. I had 2 comments on a recent play of a mish I saw streamed. The arc was written for soloists (most of my stories are). The team ran on higher settings and got their asses handed to them a couple times. Eventually, they figured it out and won the day. One of the comments said it was hard, but fair, and a good story. The other one said it seemed overly hard for the small number of XPs they got (which tells me what their priorities are [and makes me wonder why they were there, then]). I thanked them for the feedback, agreed it turned out hard, and added that my tests on default settings were much easier. I guess the expectation was that I should test on the highest settings. I’ve decided I’ll do a bit of that in the future. Just to get a gauge of it (even though the default story text warns players when there’s custom enemies). Of course, I can’t plan ahead for players who get butthurt when they die (more than once, evidently).:-)

Not that I recall. The breakout tutorial on redside is sorta like that. You can also rob a bank during redside mayhem mishes, allow yourself to be defeated, then you spawn in a jail cell in the police station, from which you have to fight your way out. There are also certain missions against the Circle of Thorns where defeat lands you in one of their prison cells. Outside that, I can’t think of anything where the scenario is escape. Summer Blockbuster has some complex missions where each player acts out their part separately to advance a team goal. Other than that…no idea. The Marchand arc has you freeing your team from prison, then fighting bosses.

Well…maybe we can do it…I dunno…dirtier?

Also: thanks for the Mobius run.* Caught it after the fact when I did my usual check in with your channel. I actually have this coming Monday off and thought about hopping on when you do your AE runs. I'll have to (a) check the times and (b) decide if my old fartness can handle the early wakeup. I'd also need to swing a toon over to Everlast, but that's not a biggy. Thanks again, man. Hope you get a chance to get to the finale. *Didn't realize how tough the Shadows/Chalikar were with those settings and numbers, since I write for soloists (I knew the wandering mercs were a bear, since I always ran into their overlapping patrols on the second floor, where you can't really see how many of them there are when you enter through the choke point). Will say that, when you pulled the team back and started herding them, I got a big kick out of it. I was like, Oh man...Molly's goin' old school. And down they went.:-)

KR Devil (aka Juan Jiminez? [never been confirmed!]).:-) It's not optimal, but AR/TA. Got a lot better with the changes to Full Auto, but it's really about flexibility from the Arrow set. And I just like spraying lead.:-)