Feedback: New Story Arcs

[Bossk_Hogg]

I ran through Shauna's Vigilante Arc and quite enjoyed it! I appreciated that the detective acknowledged that breaking into a police station to steal evidence to turn over to the police wasn't the best move lol. Also, not sure if I just lucked into it or if it was coded, but I busted out laughing at Lusa popping up in the cutscene at the end.

 

My only real suggestion would be to make this a higher level arc, maybe up to 34? It's a bit hard to encounter without using flashback or null the gull, as you have to hit 20, then run 10 tip missions, then a vigilante alignment mission before level 30. If you team, use double exp, or play at higher difficulties, you'll shoot right past it. 

 

THANK YOU for adding new stories, particularly to the middle alignments!

[holymittens]

Thanks for the feedback. This will be useful for future work.

On 10/15/2019 at 9:18 PM, Eva Destruction said:

The false leads start to get tedious after a while.  I was kind of annoyed that the CoT guy didn't have my shiny rock.  Speaking of which, I'm pretty sure you don't know they're dead people wearing skin suits at this point in your career.  Villains learn this in Magus Mu'Drakhan's arc in the late 30s, iirc.  I also noticed that he turned friendly at low health and started helping me fight his former friends; I'm not sure if he can die but if he does die and the body fades out before you talk to him it might make the mission impossible to complete.  I've had this happen in tip missions.

There is really only one false lead, which is the CoT mission (which only occurs if you take certain actions when dealing with the Auctioneer). All other leads are real ones that help you pinpoint the true thief. As for Semrig turning friendly, I am going to say that's a bug. Hopefully it'll be something that can get resolved.

 

Also, technically, you can learn the CoT are spirits inhabiting bodies at any level, provided you kill 200 of them to get the badge. For more likely scenarios, you learn it in the Mortimer Kal Strike Force (which can be run post-20) or from Archmage Tarixus's mission to capture Akarist's soul. You can also get clues about it from Crash Cage's second arc, though it's not explicitly spelled out. There may be other places I am not recalling at the moment. I checked before I wrote that line that it was possible, though of course it's not really possible (or at least it's overcomplicated) to check if the character would know that.

 

[johnnysc]

I did the Vigilante arc on my Street Justice/Willpower Natural Stalker, so up front I have to say that the story line and Family+Police foes were just the right fit thematically for this character.  It's nice to have a mission story arc that fits this type of character.  I didn't even mind the addition of the special guest star in the final cut scene.

 

Regarding the branching decision at the end, I think using "I'm here to kill you" as the player character line is too literal.  Yes it makes it clear that the choice is too kill the bad guy or turn him over to the cops for a lesser charge, but I think something a little more melodramatic would do as well.  This could be a good place for a cheezy line straight ought of a 80s Schwarzenegger movie.

 

Going further back in time, I loved the role Detective Hutchins played and his dialog.

 

Regarding the police ambush, I was able to get out, but if larger mob size spawned I'm sure the glue grenades would have slowed me down too much.  If defeated in that map, do you wake up in the jail?

 

And the Avenger badge art was great.  

 

[Gulbasaur]

On 10/13/2019 at 1:09 AM, holymittens said:

Here's a link to a very, very stripped down arc. It doesn't have everything in it, because I don't understand how a lot of stuff works and there are apparently some converter tools that turn things into what actually need to be used by the system... I don't really understand it all, I'm just a writer! I can't promise it'll really teach anyone how to do anything, but it might help a little for some people.

Actually, this is really clear and helpful. Thank you for putting it up!

[Crasical]

I ran both of these missions, and I want to join in on chiming in about the overall quality of the writing. The branching story and the fact that your dialogue choices matter were great, and the tone was on-point. Also, I was extremely impressed by the subdued but impactful use of cutscenes. I'm extremely interested in seeing more new arcs in the game.

 

I wanted to ask about Arc Flash, am I correct in having seen her switch powersets midway through the fight? She got to maybe half and then did a full heal and went from blue electricity to red electricity, and from mostly ranged to mostly melee. Bug or intentional?

I'm very curious about what happens if you try and trade her for her bracers. I might have to replay that arc to see.

[holymittens]

19 hours ago, Crasical said:

I wanted to ask about Arc Flash, am I correct in having seen her switch powersets midway through the fight? She got to maybe half and then did a full heal and went from blue electricity to red electricity, and from mostly ranged to mostly melee. Bug or intentional?

Intentional.

[drdread]

I wanted to run through both missions before making a comment. On the rogue side, I played a TW/RAD brute; on the vigilante side, I played a WP/SS tanker.

 

Overall

Excellent job. Both had engaging stories, and very different missions. Both were a good length, not too long and not too short.

• The cutscenes. Very well implemented, especially on the vigilante mission. They felt much more impactful than the cutscenes Paragon Studios had made.
• Both mission had some very unique elements, especially the rogue mission.
• Both stories were excellent in communicating the importance of alignment.
• The rogue mission had a nice variety of antagonists, while the vigilante mission had a good cohesion of the antagonists.

Criticisms

These aren't game breaking, and the missions are still very worthwhile to do, but some observations.

• The second mission of the rogue story was a little bewildering at first. I had problems finding the NPC, and I was confused at first of the appearance of the arch-villain. A waypoint or a clue to the location of the NPC would have been useful, as I thought his location was actually out of bounds. However, it was also a hallmark mission of the storyline. I liked how the arch-villain could change the dynamics of the mission.
• I felt the vigilante mission was easier than the rogue mission. Granted, the characters were quite different, but the elite boss at the end of the rogue mission was more difficult than I expected. I don't necessarily think it needs adjustment, just an observation.

 

Good job to the people who worked on both missions. You vastly exceeded my expectations.

[azazel005]

In regards to Bobby's Arc, it being the one I have played.

 

I don't have any experience in coding and balancing mechanics or the like, they were slightly more challenging than older content slighter less than the newest content. Feels about right, not everything needs to hit a sweet curve, very much enjoyed playing them but as a non-squishy character I imagine it might have pushed less durable archetypes a bit far.

 

The writing was better than I expected, different from the overall Arcs, written with more intent to weave the stories into player activity and less to simply set the scene and point as at combat, it was a welcome change of pace, I enjoyed letting the mob boss ramble, I enjoyed feeling like the story was playing out in mission rather than pre and post, it was a small careful tonal shift and it was *close* I think to where we really need to get to with rogues, trying to figure out what stories work for them without just making them mercenary or just less mean villains. I agree to a point with Eva Destruction on the primary antagonists motivation was overly noble, and forced a bit of thin-ness despite the very good attempts in game explain why she needed to do what she said she needed.

 

I think there is a lot of opportunity there to explore ideas about how wealthy a hero can really be in a world of super heroes, and how straining that can be to anyone's best intentions. Their is plenty of ways to make her plight sympathetic and still give her more flaws, it sapped a little energy at the end with her pretty much "pure" motivation, I'd have liked to feel just a touch more challenged, especially with the introduced dichotomy between the siblings.

 

Absolutely appreciated though, it was great and I hope you continue writing more interesting stories for us. I think so much plot in game is so invested in grand battles, the small struggles in a world with many active super people don't get enough attention. 

[Pie-ro]

I ran the one in IP, Dirty work. The story was great and I loved the cutscenes at the end that tied the story into IP. It made it feel like it was happening in the actual world not just an instanced office building. We need more of that in the game I think. So well done. Oh also the branching dialog choices and the characters reacting to your dialog was great. These did not feel like fanfiction. I am looking forward to more content 😄

 

just finished the other story arc with branching missions. I ended up trading the diamond for the bracers. AND IT GAVE ME THEM AS A TEMP POWER. I LOVE IT. More of this please. 

Edited November 6, 2019 by Pie-ro
Adding info

[longdayinrehab]

I did not know these existed until MetaVileTerror mentioned them in another thread. I will take a look over the weekend and post my thoughts after. Thank you for doing this!

[Patti]

Me too!  Do I have to be level 25 to do them?  Can I do them sooner?

[50caltech]

how do you find Shauna braun's arc in ouro?   which piller?

[FoulVileTerror]

You have to be flagged as a Vigilante, and any of the regular Pillars will do the trick.  Level Range of 25+

[Cinnder]

Not sure if anyone's still looking at this thread, but I want to speak again about the sudden difficulty of the final rogue mish.

 

First time I did this content was via Ouro with an exemped 50, which was when I merely commented that a warning re the EB would be appropriate.

 

With a natural 25 this final mish was extremely difficult, requiring that I perform as many gamey tricks as I could imagine.  Plus a number of deaths.  At least the hospital was nearby.

 

An un-advance-warned-about EB immediately after a crowded roomful of a dozen or so mobs is really harsh for a level 25.

Edited December 2, 2020 by Cinnder
typo