cranebump

Welllll...I personally haven't used specific people in any of my arcs. But I did create one that featured a parody of certain types of "news organizations." Turns out the talking head* that was spewing anti-superhero sentiment was just a tool for the actual string pullers/power brokers. Not that my that would mirror anything in real life...at all...:-) *

Once a Hero [ID: 37945] by @Lord of Robotics In this well-constructed L20-29 arc, your contact is Psychic Witch. She wants you to check into a new drug on the scene, called Dreaming. Skulls have it. It’s not good. For them or anyone. Your adventure in bustin’ takes you through some rescues and such, where you discover that the drug seems to put people into a - ready for it? - dream state.:-) The real mystery of course is where all the weird monsters are coming from when they do (witches and such, zombie types, and some reskinned baddies, along with many customs). Eventually you discover that [REDACTED] is behind the drug, and that their experiments have [REALLY LONG AND SUPER REDACTED]. It’s an excellently constructed arc, with real care and attention to detail. It is uniformly solid. Has a bit of a twist, but it’s well-telegraphed. I particularly liked the hero NPC brothers you run into on the Croatoa map. My one single petty gripe – there’s a semicolon. I hate semicolons. People don’t speak in semicolons. And, like Vonnegut said…[ahem] But I digress.:-) This is great work. A dreamy 5 stars for this one, and a non-horrific Seal of Approval.

Heh...you've been "ominated.":-)

All I have is the fond memory of the event. And this paddle game (pock-pock-pock-pock). (I don't recall, my friend, sorry. As for screenshots, I am out of space, thanks to my Devil Bat days).

This is the way, then.:-)

I was going to say...:-)

So, rather than Longbow, we need to send in Longshanks.:-)

And the chess match moves into the endgame:-)

One of the Faultline crew said come back at 40? That’s strange.

Yes. The order they provided, above, should do it. You get introduced to key players that you run into again later on. Gonna chime in with @Zhym by suggesting actually playing through the arcs as you level (perhaps in the future). The story will then unfold for you in order. You don’t really need a “good build” for most story content (though the FL arcs do have some tough bosses who could be an issue, depending on AT/experience).

If this were somehow accomplished with the AE tools we currently, I'd give it a 50.:-)

The middle and finale arcs are complete: Part 2: A Vendetta for V (63158) Part 3: Veillance (63459) STILL having issues when I add a 4th mish to any arc I do, but I DID manage to shoehorn it in in the finale.

Lord Recluse welcomes your feedback. Our customer support team will be in touch. REAL soon...* (*obviously, I have nothing worthwhile to offer):-)

Ran with an actual L20, an AR/TA blaster with no IO sets. Comments and suggestions in spoilers section, below:

I’m going to go through it again, just to see if I missed anything. I did look up the title. It’s Brit singer Paloma Faith’s song, I believe? Still makes no sense to me, considering the initial espionage tone and content of the piece (though I gusss it applies to info in the cut scene?). That said the contacts name is Gaelic, and they employ some UK speech patterns (like saying “…,yeah?” at the end of a sentence). Between that and the Faith ref, we got a lot of UK going here. Is our author from there, or are these just character conventions?:-) The next day... AFTER A 3RD RUN AND RECONSIDERATION: Most of my initial impressions still stand. It's a very well constructed arc with a bit of new shiny to it. The lore-grounded story itself isn't anything novel, though the law office ending is, in that the hero does a lot of stuff for nothing (sometimes the bad guys win). Unfortunately, this kind of "cliffhanger" is just not a satisfying payoff. When the story is extended, however, it will be much easier to push that into the background (unless we get another chatty finale, which I doubt). Anyway, the Devs did promise Hero Corps, and that's what we got. At least one person I know got their character included in the story (good for you @Six-Six).:-) (Before I forget: props for sending us to Booms. That zone gets very little love.) ALSO: As noted WAAAAY above by the strikethrough, I'm withdrawing my "weak sister" comment (that belongs to Piecemeal's personal story, a flashy, very well done, but overly long lore dump).

Well, since you asked...:-) [Bear in mind, I think this arc is well constructed, albeit hollow in some ways...and I really hate the title]:-) I felt like THE major features of this arc were the (a) AE "Holodeck" (aka "run to the next cut scene), and (b) the non-finale finale. For (a) it felt - to me - like a test run for future scripting tools (EX: vig merits; in-mish "live" cut scenes). As for (b), I was most definitely let down by the irresolution of the whole thing. I think that, since this is official content, the whole damned story should be there. I'd rather they'd waited and given me the whole thing. I also just didn't give a shit about the NPCs in the hallway (mainly because I was so caught off guard by the last mish being only a cut scene). I chatted with @Darmian about this aspect a couple days ago, and he offered a good, albeit unconfirmed reason why the NPCs are there (which, if Darm's reason isn't the actual reason, then all that talk to the NPC shit is just a vanity exercise). recalled there was a community submissions contest for HC characters, which were promised to be included in forthcoming releases related to a resurgence of the Corps. One of these player submissions is in the room. I'm not sure about the rest of them, though they're obviously guards for the principals in the meeting. But, other than granting a bit of ancillary info and a bit of foreshadowing (for the reintroduction of a relevant Hero Corps, I assume?), I don't think the arc needed them. They're window-dressing, mainly. I'm totally with you @Zhym, on your observation about the needless Defeat All (what was the point there?). I DID like using the chopper as a mish door (good idea there). As for the "talk to," my interest was piqued when I was sent to see the AE tech (that's new!). Then the "holodeck" thing followed, which was cool, except the red stars didn't go away when the cut scene was done (also, when I did this on a team on my 2nd run, I don't think they read anything, or had an NPC box open, or anything -- they were wondering why when they clicked, the next one wasn't active [which I explained for them, having run the thing solo already]). I clicked on the glitch at the behest of my team. Nothing spawned on top of us, so we left (so a bit of letdown, brought about by location). There's also some objective text that needs to be edited (when obj switches from plural to singular -- can't recall the exact wording at this point). So, overall? It's a a decent story (or framework for one), with an interesting, (for now) unique feature in the middle, that leaves you with a tepid cliffhanger. Writing is clean. Main contact is well drawn. Some good jokes! Story is pretty straightforward. SOLIDLY tied into lore (Revenant hero project for one thing). Mechanically solid. Some tough bosses (unless you run your tough tank, like I did on run #3). It also introduces several interesting mechanical effects, but having reflected on it, I get the sense the designer got sidetracked by indulging in too many "Wouldn't it be cool if" ideas they had. (holodeck, big cut scene at end [untraditional, and unsatisfying], a bunch of NPCs to talk to [I didn't talk to all of them so I can't say if they had anything to do with the actual plot], cloned hero corps baddies [that you don't have to fight]).* Now, if the WHOLE story were released, and I could progress to the next mish(es) (and preferably, to a real finale), it would feel a whole lot different, I think. But alas. For all the innovation that's here, there's too much of a dependence on the shiny, making this - for me - the weak sister of the new content. an unsatisfying experience overall. We need the follow-on arc/finale. Then maybe we can more accurately determine the true quality of this unfinished tale. For now, it's (well-constructed) bog standard stuff with some sparkly widgets to set it apart. I wish I knew why we couldn't get the whole story. *In a way, it was like experiencing the work of a competent author who has access to fancy new tools, wanting to use them all, rather than only the tools they needed. I imagine if I had some shiny tools, I might go a little overboard using them, as well. Maybe. (I hope not) That said, if you're gonna have these tools, you better create something as good or better than us amateurs plodding along with videotape, while you've gone digital. If the main thing is the special effects, then I think we missed an opportunity. FYI: I LOVED being able to get Vig credits in mish. That was pretty cool (and was also part of the "we're testing some stuff" impression I got).

Mogwai’s been captured.

In Kyksie's defense, this is posted as a "story arc," not a farm. It's hard to properly critique a story if there's no story. It sounds like what you wanted was feedback on the mechanical aspects of design (and maybe some comments on where it lands, in terms of difficulty)? That said, he did give you feedback from a soloist's perspective, which may prove useful to you, since there are AE soloists out there (more than AE teams, I'd wager). And you did say you welcomed any feedback, so... For me, I'm curious about your aim in creating the arc. You recommend +4/x8. Am I to assume this is a challenge arc (esp since there are multiple EB's/EVs in one location)? If so, that will need to be a part of your arc description. If the main objective of the arc is to be challenging, and players know that going in, you'll hear fewer complaints (if any) from those who play it. And those who avoid arcs simply for challenge's sake (like me), will be warned off from playing it (unless I'm feeling uncharacteristically chippy that day).:-) Beyond all this, I'd say that, when you submit a story for feedback, the more you've completed, the more useful your feedback will be (and the more ground it will cover). Right now, you're asking for reviews of "optimizing gameplay flow." I'm assuming this has to do with spawn placement, objective chains and the like (and difficulty). I would offer here that you can usually self-test most mechanical aspects by simply running and rerunning the arc, using different AT's at different levels (for team play, you'd have to recruit testers). I would say that there's an expectation on the part of the player that the designer has done at least that (made multiple test runs, in varying contexts*) before posting a story arc (farms? who gives a sh*t. things can be anywhere). Kyksie's demands of actually experiencing a full story arc, for one that is advertised as such, isn't an unreasonable expectation, especially if you're wanting feedback. FYI: such things as desc's for custom minions, contact verbiage, dialogue, etc., are minimum expectations for someone experiencing a story arc (as is the assumption on the part of the player that the designer has done due diligence on the mechanical aspects I already mentioned (making multiple run-throughs to check proper objective placement/spawns/flow, etc). The burdens on the writer are enormous. All I can say is, when you shirk any of them, people notice. And they tell you about it.:-) Good Luck! *this is why I design for soloists -- you don't have to get a team to test an arc that's designed for one.

Thugs change appearance with each summons, I think. I just ran my MM this evening, and had different types of Thugs each time they showed up. Think the same thing happened when I changed zones even. They were different. Well...except for that flame blowing guy, who always seems to he a readheaded douche.:-)

Are the street mobs in Talos retrofitted?

No kidding. I ran a couple DFBs with a new Sentinel. Half of each team were Marines. We beat up the bad guys while taking a bubble bath. Our theme song was Rubber Ducky. (Well…it should’ve been).

Well now, that’s a damned shame, since you’re completing a mish while getting the credit. Oh, well.I thought it was sorta cool anyway.

You can gain Vigilante credits in the new Steel mish by doing the optional objectives. Just found that out today.

I’ve used them as enemy bosses. They worked.

Spike Lee?