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PW searches for level 12-20 story-focused mission arcs


Police Woman

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Meet Arrow Girl, a level 12 blaster! 

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I've decided to try to level her up through level 20 via story-focused mission arcs in Mission Architect.

 

The rules of engagement:

  • I will use the AE interface to search for the keyword "SFMA" and "my level". 
  • I'll skip over any story arc where the max level range is above level 20.  Arrow Girl is a good soloer, but she won't do well in those level 1-54 story arcs.
  • I'll be solo, with XP and double XP on, and earning architect tickets.
  • I'll try to keep this project going until Arrow Girl hits level 21.  (We'll see if I keep going after that.)
  • Interestingly, the first two SFMA story arcs that show up in my search at "my level" of 12 are written by me.  I'll skip over those too, but I'm going to go ahead and plug them in this forum post.  Talos Vice (arc #1337) and Two Tickets to Westerly (arc #1678), please check them out!

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Arrow Girl's first story arc to play through is The Lazarus Project (arc #6554) by @Coulomb.  I think I may have played this on the live servers, but I didn't really remember any details (it would've been around 15 years ago?).

 

The Lazarus Project was a terrific story arc where you investigate some Vahzilok-related disappearances.  Arrow Girl got to fight both Vahzilok and rich entitled jerks, both things I hate.  I was a little worried that it might be too long an arc with 5 full missions (I know most authors like to max out at 5 missions per arc, but I don't subscribe to that).  However, several of these missions were on small maps so it still felt very doable.

 

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Missing newbie heroes, you say?  Arrow Girl is on the case!

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And I thought Aid Other would be useless when soloing!

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Sorry lady, but this really sounds like a First World problem to me.

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OMG I hate this guy so much.  Rich, entitled Vahzilok!!

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The final boss!  The dialog throughout this whole arc was excellent.

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I gave The Lazarus Project 5 stars.  Arrow Girl finished the story arc at level 13.

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I may have ran Lazarus, as well. Can't recall. In any case, you're doing something I started doing and dropped -- running from l level 1 on up. Inspires me to try to do it again.

 

Keep it up! This is cool stuff! Maybe we should make it a community challenge?

I have done a TON of AE work, both long form and single arc. Just search the AE mish list for my sig @cranebump. For more information on my stories, head to the AE forum sub-heading and look for “Crane’s World.” Support your AE authors! We ARE the new content.

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51 minutes ago, cranebump said:

In any case, you're doing something I started doing and dropped -- running from l level 1 on up. Inspires me to try to do it again.

 

Keep it up! This is cool stuff! Maybe we should make it a community challenge?

Thanks for the support!  Yeah, I had been semi-dormant on AE stuff for awhile, but reading in another thread about how hard it is to find good story arcs for lower level toons inspired me to give this a try.

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My next story arc to play through was Rewarded as a Loyalist Deserves (arc #37325).

 

In this Loyalist faction story arc you're initially tasked to rescue some civilians and police from the Resistance, but it gets complicated and you end up fighting through a rogues gallery of most of the various Praetorian factions.

 

 

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A Syndicate boss hints that the person I'm trying to rescue may not be who she seems.

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Arrow Girl stumbles over a Destroyer rave in a helicopter hangar.  This was a cool visual.

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Oooh, foreshadowing!  They're gonna get me!

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I finally found her, the missing hostage that I had been trying to rescue for 4 (!) straight missions.  Despite that, she didn't have much to say.

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Oh no, they really are out to get me!  (Seriously, this set of ambushes was ridiculous at level 13.)

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Overall I thought trying to rescue the same hostage for 4 missions straight was a bit repetitive; one of the NPCs even lampshades this by saying "Sorry, your princess is in another castle."  It was also rather confusing to figure out what side Nishimura was really on - I got the impression that she was a triple agent?  But I could've used some clues or dialog that more clearly spelled this out.  There were way too many ambushes - it was dramatic if I could manage to survive them, but as a level 13 squishy blaster, facing 3 ambushes at a time felt like too much.  It was nice getting to see Praetorian lore and enemy groups explored, though.

 

I gave the arc 3 stars.  Despite suffering 2 defeats, Arrow Girl made it to level 14.

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