Alter-EAT Arcs

[Greycat]

So, with side switching introduced, people could make characters of any AT on either side. Yay! And they could switch sides. Yay! People have enjoyed this for years.

 

Except, there are a couple of outliers. Kheldians and SOA/Widows (aka VEATs) can only start on their side. They're given story arcs from 1-50 and are tied to their lore... so while they can side switch after creation, they're stuck being created as their respective sides, and if they fully side switch, they lose access to their arcs (the "epic" in Epic AT.)

 

This should be rectified.

 

Yes, people can ignore those arcs. I know (after getting my extra costume slot...) I do for VEATs. But it would be a shame to lose out on more content. So...

 

Blue VEATs, 1-50: Ideally, would get arcs about shifting loyalties and proving themselves. Obviously they're not going to get off the boat (or Longbow helicopter) and be instantly trusted. As it is, there's a blueside - I think it's alignment mission, come to think of it - where you rescue "one good spider." This would be a great kernel to start with. "They might have trusted you enough to rescue you, but everyone else just sees an Arachnos agent." Both VEAT types run the same arcs from 1-20. After the required respec, you can explore some of the lore behind each branch starting with the 25 arcs, perhaps re-infiltrating and working against Arachnos.

 

Red HEAT: Another 1-50... but unlike blueside, which barely splits the two (you get different arcs for PB and WS for the first arc or two, then they follow the whole Kheldian war arc,) you get two arcs.

 

... well, sort of.

 

As a Peacebringer, you'll get an arc - perhaps - where you will do whatever to eliminate the Nictus - and the "traitorous" PBs who are obviously dupes supporting the Nictus... perhaps.

 

As a Warshade... well, you get a choice. Same arc as the PBs. Or, you get one where you never switched. You play as a full blown Nictus, working to undermine the PBs, Arachnos, the heroes, whoever you need to to expand the NIctus hold on Earth. (Mostly because I don't want to *force* someone to "be a Nictus" just because they're a Warshade.) How this ends, I couldn't say... probably taking your place alongside Arakhn, since we can't really change Earth into "War Wolf Earth" from the Portal Corp mission.

 

 

Potentially, these could be set up as an AE competition, as well, with winning ideas incorporated into (or at least used as a basis for) the arcs. Community involvement, yay!

 

These are (obviously!) just rough ideas of what potential arcs could be for side-switched H/VEAT arcs. I'm not married to them, as better arcs could be made. I mostly just want the side switched arcs.  (Potentially there could be arcs you run *to* switch sides, but ... eh. That could just get weird and railroady, as far as your character's motivations and such. Some of the morality missions already do that and it ... rather *irks* me.)

[RobotLove]

Moar options, moar fun. I support this idea. I also support making more work for others.

 

Get writing kitty.

[MTeague]

I've long looked at AE as a venue for perhaps crowdsourcing new "official" story arcs. 

If I was the developers, one of the first things I'd have done was add a checkbox, which STARTS UNCHECKED, because really, that's how it should be, that says "If you check this, you give the devs permission to harvest this AE mission and convert + modify it to become official content, if they choose to do so."

 

I mean, it's all a private server, so maybe they could already technically do anything they darn well pleased with any AE mission at any time. 

But it would keep a lot of feathers unruffled if it were done on that basis.

 

And for all I know maybe there even IS already such a checkbox?

I keep meaning to play around with Mission Creators and ... keep loading up other things instead.

[Greycat]

There's not one. Closest we have are devs choice arcs.

 

Nothing stopping them from asking, though.

[Andreah]

An enterprising player could make a start at this with a series of custom AE arcs, carefully written with respect to existing lore. 

[FoulVileTerror]

I'm almost certain someone posted their work on an alternative Villain Epic Story Arc in Mission Architect.  Does anyone have the link to that?  I feel like that's a good place to examine for some ideas related to tone and style.