Focused Feedback: New Story Arc - Ashling Corlett - Only Love Can Hurt Like This

[The Curator]

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New Story Arc

'Only Love Can Hurt Like this' - Ashling Corlett (Level 41-49)

Ashling Corlett is a veteran of Paragon City, even if you've never heard of her.

 

When the Shivan attack hit Galaxy City she was in the thick of the Hero Corps rescue detail, only leaving after directly ordered to despite suffering serious injury. As a result she moved to the Hero Corps reserves, but she hasn't been idle.

 

There's things left undone and she means to finish them, even if it means crossing a few lines to do it.

 

 Reach out to Ashling and her Hero Corps reserves, there's work to be done!  

 

• CONTACT: Ashling Corlett

• LOCATION: Steel Canyon (/thumbtack -4736.0 0.0 395.4)
• ALIGNMENT / LEVEL: Hero - Level 41+
• OUROBOROS / ARC: Captain (40-49) - 28.01

[lemming]

3 hours ago, The Curator said:

• ALIGNMENT / LEVEL: Hero - Level 41+
• OUROBOROS / ARC: Captain (40-49) - 28.01

Ashling seems to be level 41-44 in Ouro and is not available via just walking up at level 50.   If going via Ouro, got set to level 44.

 

If you walk up and talk with her and you are 41-44, you can grab her mission chain.  If you talk with her in that range, and get the story book icon, you can then grab her mission at any time, which will be set to level 44.

Edited July 7 by lemming

[ZorkNemesis]

I can't take a look at this from work but i'm wondering.  Seeing as this contact works for Freedom Corps, is this a place where we might see some of the community designed Freedom Corps costumes from a couple years ago or no?

[lemming]

Last mission was a bit of a bummer, but the optional "Talk to Hero Corp  members" is a bit confusing until you happen to click on Feralina. 

From the resolution, it does look like Part One.  I'm guessing Part Two maybe coming in the next release cycle?

 

Second mission: "act of sabotage left (Optional)"   maybe shouldn't have "left".   It also looked confusing to "Hack" a crate until after you look at the end result.   Perhaps change "Hack" to "Hack storage controls"

Edited July 7 by lemming

[Paradox Fate]

Question - Can I take a stab at Hero Corp with her and tell them where to stick their 'Hero for Hire' policy?

 

It feels like a missed opportunity not to dig against them, even when they are mostly accepted nowadays compared to the early 2000's.

[Ukase]

So...I plan to run this 2x. Once through ouro, and another with a character within the level range, just in case the difficulty is something troublesome for an SO only build. 

But the first mission, the objectives are confusing me. 

Leave no witnesses. Defeat the boss. 

Why not just call it a kill all? 
I killed the boss and the minion next to him. 
Then I cleared the room. Not like these guys saw anything. 
The mission didn't complete. 

All the glowies were clicked, still the mission isn't complete. If I have to kill all - it should say that. Leave no witnesses implies it - but with the defeat the boss and the leave no witnesses, it suggests to me just clear the room with the boss in it. 


Second mission: 
The "Hero Corp Clone" wasn't really a clone. At least, not as far as I could tell. It was simply a Paragon Protector with different colors. Not really looking at all like hero corp to me. 

3rd mission: 
Go defeat 20 trolls. Absolutely not. 

I'll do this once if there's a badge for it, but I do not enjoy open zone hunting. If I wanted to open zone hunt, I can do that without interacting with a contact. 
Thumbs down! 

4th mission - go see the contact in person. Just another episode of busy work. There's absolutely no reason to make the player use their lrtp or base teleport or travel power to go zone hopping for this. If the story can only make sense with this, change the story. It's just annoying. 

5th mission - Go visit Neal in AE. What? So, no mission tp. No Team TP. I have to travel for a chat. This is the kind of stuff I don't like. Needless chats the contact could do without us hero types getting involved. 

I used the QA tester power to auto-complete 3rd, 4th and 5th missions. 

Mission 6 - The map looks awesome with the different skin! I'm not at all sure why we have to go from terminal to terminal when it could all be done on the first terminal. Other than that, this mission is pleasant. 

Mission 7 - Interesting. Desert Freeze has a fantastic costume. Because it was apparent I needed to rescue her, I assumed the other heroes would be in a similar situation. The codenamed PPs were apparently the heroes to recover. Because of this - you may want to reword the objectives. Defeat the mind-twisted heroes that are now dressed like paragon protectors. 

Stop with the hero corp clone theme - just call them paragon protector clones. It doesn't fit the story, but the costumes fit better. 

Finale: 
The creativity and subtle humor are great. Gloryhound looks awesome! The names and costumes are clever. Well done. 
The ending...no blood bath. No option to defeat anyone. 
Honestly, quite a let down. What about that warning to restock on inspirations? Pointless. 

Overall, some good creativity. But other than that - this arc is a stinker. Needless zone hopping about. You could trim a couple of those missions and the story would be the same. But, that's just my opinion. 

 

Edited July 11 by Ukase

[lemming]

5 hours ago, Ukase said:

But the first mission, the objectives are confusing me. 

Thanks.  I forgot to mention that when I ran thru.  Wound up hunting everyone down.

 

Good feedback (even if I don't mind whacking a few trolls and a delivery)

[TygerDarkstorm]

I will give my feedback on the arc later, but I wanted to point out a typo I found in the last mission:

 

Her name is Ashling, unless Countess Crey is using the wrong name as a means of insulting her.

[Trike]

On 7/7/2024 at 11:41 AM, The Curator said:

There's things left undone

Just a note here, it should be “There are” not “There is”.

[Triumphant]

16 hours ago, TygerDarkstorm said:

I will give my feedback on the arc later, but I wanted to point out a typo I found in the last mission:

 

Her name is Ashling, unless Countess Crey is using the wrong name as a means of insulting her.

 

It should probably be Ashley, though, because who is named Ashling? 🤷‍♂️

[GM_GooglyMoogly]

Not too many, but more than a few:

 

https://www.thebump.com/b/ashling-baby-name

[Luminara]

17 hours ago, TygerDarkstorm said:

I will give my feedback on the arc later, but I wanted to point out a typo I found in the last mission:

 

Her name is Ashling, unless Countess Crey is using the wrong name as a means of insulting her.

 

I would've gone with Assling if I were trying to insult her.  See how nice the Countess is?

[TygerDarkstorm]

5 minutes ago, Luminara said:

 

I would've gone with Assling if I were trying to insult her.  See how nice the Countess is?

Being someone named Ashley irl and with how many times I've been called Assley, YES, this would be a far better insult. 😂

[Triumphant]

4 hours ago, GM_GooglyMoogly said:

Not too many, but more than a few:

 

https://www.thebump.com/b/ashling-baby-name

Interesting etymology.  Also, strange.  But, then again, I suppose many names that we are used to today are pretty strange, if you really stop to think about it.

[Darmian]

3 minutes ago, Triumphant said:

Interesting etymology.  Also, strange.  But, then again, I suppose many names that we are used to today are pretty strange, if you really stop to think about it.

Grew up with a few Aislings.  Then again I am Irish, so...

[Triumphant]

22 minutes ago, Darmian said:

Grew up with a few Aislings.  Then again I am Irish, so...

I knew an Ainsley.  No Aislings, though.

[Darmian]

18 minutes ago, Triumphant said:

I knew an Ainsley.  No Aislings, though.

Like the chef?  

[GM_GooglyMoogly]

We're veering off course and out of focus!!

 

Since it's partially my fault, please consider this a gentle reminder to give feedback on the Ashling Corlett arc.

 

Thanks!

[Triumphant]

13 minutes ago, GM_GooglyMoogly said:

We're veering off course and out of focus!!

 

Since it's partially my fault, please consider this a gentle reminder to give feedback on the Ashling Corlett arc.

 

Thanks!

Of course.  Apologies!  Playing through this story will be my next project when I log on.  Looking forward to it, actually!

 

[Triumphant]

On 7/7/2024 at 2:24 PM, lemming said:

Ashling seems to be level 41-44 in Ouro and is not available via just walking up at level 50.   If going via Ouro, got set to level 44.

 

If you walk up and talk with her and you are 41-44, you can grab her mission chain.  If you talk with her in that range, and get the story book icon, you can then grab her mission at any time, which will be set to level 44.

Did not work for me.  Tried it on two heroes.  One was lvl 50.  The other was lvl 43.  Contact was not interested in talking to me.  Sorry.  I dunno.  🤷‍♂️

[lemming]

Just to try this out in a different manner.

First Mission:

Found the data without aggro

Defeated the Lead Researcher and his minion which completed that objective

Left the items that need sabotage

Did have to kill all to finish mission.  Last mob was a wanderer, just in case that's part of it.

 

[lemming]

• Second mission: Not the clearest of objectives, but in this one, it's only the lab manager that needs defeating.  Not even the rest of his mob.   Everything else seemed to just be blinkies.
• Third: Beating up 20 trolls is a quick speedbump with little reward.   Knock the number down to five or ten since no rewards and while trivial, still annoying to have to clear three groups.
• Fourth: Delivery is fine since next mission is nearby
• Fifth: Hunting down blinkies on a uniq map is alright once.  I think if we had a way to bypass is wanted would be helpful.  Like the ways to not do the investigation like in the Graveyard Shift skip method? At least you can click on them, move to the next one while the chat happens.   Mission debrief goes on about the husband being poisened, but nothing about the order of all the staff being "processed"?
• Sixth: Seems odd to have the heroes parachute in with all the various powers available, especially if the char has flight.  Desert Freeze (Shiverstrike) runs off instead of using a mediporter as mentioned.  And when you take down the Lab Manager, he's the only one needed to be taken out.   I'll echo Ukase in that it's a little unclear that "Recover Hero Corp" means beating them them.
• Seventh:  Just a talk.  A little unclear who to talk to at first for the optional.   And of course, cliff hanger, so hopefully another part will be out soonish.

 

 

 

 

[GM_GooglyMoogly]

Less grammar, more testing, please.

 

B.E.T.E.O.

[SupaFreak]

As stated in my testing of Striga arcs for villains last update, this is strictly feedback from speed runs from an "action junkie".  Feedback on story details not my forte.  Seek elsewhere.

 

Disclaimer: While I may not read the text contents of the mission, I greatly appreciate the time and effort put into these arcs by the author(s) for those that do enjoy that.

 

Mission 1:
Gotta agree with the feedback from others on this one.
"Leave no witnesses" is slightly confusing combined with a Defeat Boss objective plus it clutters the Nav mission details more than needed.

"Leave no witnesses" also sounds way more Vigilante than Hero.

Suggest removing the Defeat Boss object and rewording to "Interrogate Crey Staff" or something along those lines.

Optional (Sabotage) also not very Heroic sounding.  Right off the bat, the arc with this wording feels very Vigilante.  My feedback = change wording or make the arc Vigilante.

 

Mission 2:

Nothing special

 

Mission 3:

If it were me, I'd reword the Nav to read "Confront Trolls in Boomtown" or something along those lines.  Upon receiving mission, I just hit LRT for Skyway thinking it could be anywhere... then I questioned what "local" may mean since no Trolls there went towards the count.

 

Mission 4 - 5:

Nothing special

Return to Contact / Talk to NPC 

 

Mission 6:

Very cool reskinning of existing map.

Not a fan of the overly long "wait for NPC chat" delays before clicking glowies over the span of 3 floors then waiting for chatter again.  But hey, I guess it's someone's bag out there...

 

Mission 7:

Yea, the wordplay of "Recover Heroes" when they're enemies is fine in my book.

Fool me once, good for you.... fool me twice, duh is me.  

 

Mission 8:

Nothing special.

Cutscene and Talk to NPC

 

Bleh ending.

 

Conclusion:

Not really a fun "action" arc at all.

Story-wise, I have no idea.

Has 1 cool map to look at if you have a "map touring" fetish.

You also get a Badge if you have a *badge collecting* fetish.

Again with the default 20 Merits for arc, no matter how long it takes ( yea, I'm your worst critic on that approach ).

Did 2 runs so I could speed it a second time and clocked in at 24 mins... so not very rewarding compared to a good chunk of other arcs out there.

Replay value for me... extremely low.  I have a "reward to time spent ratio" fetish.

[The Caretaker]

On 7/7/2024 at 4:45 PM, ZorkNemesis said:

I can't take a look at this from work but i'm wondering.  Seeing as this contact works for Freedom Corps, is this a place where we might see some of the community designed Freedom Corps costumes from a couple years ago or no?

 

The spirit of those costumes is alive and well - I made minimal changes to the original costumes, only adding Hero Corps branding and uniqueness where I could.

 

Three went into John Houston's arc during the riots, you can fight them - Bronze Bird, Vulcannon, and Little League.

 

More are in this arc - Vulcannon and Little League again, Calanthe, Cauldron, Feralina, Eye in the Sky, Shiverstrike, Iron Ellis and Rebecca Foss.

 

Hero Corps members that became cloned into Paragon Protectors, not shown: Crosswind.