Darmian Posted Friday at 01:38 PM Posted Friday at 01:38 PM (edited) Ok, the title may need to be changed. Any suggestions happily accepted! This thread is spun off of a discussion that started here about Dev Choice awards and developed into debate about the various criteria we look at to decide (subjectively) if a story arc is "good" or not. All such comments are me phrasing things while currently at work and again may be revised when I get a chance to think more on how to put this. We had some discussion on good, enjoyable, fun, all of that. Plenty of agreement and plenty of disagreement! We can explore that further hopefully. As well as that we hit the wall of how to make story arcs more visible to those who playing the AE. Further suggestions welcome! Edited Friday at 01:39 PM by Darmian AE SFMA Arcs: The Meteors (Arc id 42079) | Dark Deeds in Galaxy City: Part One. (Arc id 26756) X | Dark Deeds in Galaxy City: Part Two. (Arc id 26952) | Dark Deeds in Galaxy City: Part Three. (Arc id 27233) Darker Deeds: Part One (Arc id 28374) | Darker Deeds: Part Two. (Arc id 28536) | Darker Deeds: Part Three. (Arc id 29252) | Darkest Before Dawn: Part One (Arc id 29891) | Darkest Before Dawn: Part Two (Arc id 30210) | Darkest Before Dawn: Part Three (Arc id 30560) | Bridge of Forever ( Arc id 36642) | The Cassini Division (Arc id 37104) X | The House of Gaunt Saints (Arc id 37489) X | The Spark of the Blind (Arc id 40403) | Damnatio Memoriae (Arc id 41140) X | The Eve of War (Arc id 41583) X | Spirals: Part One. (Arc id 55109) | Spirals: Part Two. (Arc id 55358) | Spirals: Part Three. (Arc id 57197) I Sing of Arms and the Man (Arc id 42617) | Three Sisters (Arc id 43013) (Pre War Praetorian Loyalist. Pre War Praetorian Resistance. Pre ITF Cimerora. Post ITF Cimerora. X = Dev Choice/Hall of Fame )
ZamuelNow Posted Friday at 02:31 PM Posted Friday at 02:31 PM I'd say public team requests for story based teaming. I state public since we know there are SGs that run AE together. Biggest difficulty is people not wanting to lead teams. The lesser difficulty might be figuring out shard culture since different shards may require different approaches. 1 AE Arcs: Search for @ZamuelNow Dhahabu Kingdom and the Indelible Curse of Hate [60044] and Dhahabu Kingdom and the Unfathomable Nightmare of Sand [61528] Consideration of Knowledge [65341]
Police Woman Posted Friday at 07:33 PM Posted Friday at 07:33 PM (edited) Most of the AE story arcs I've played are heavy on mission briefing text, clues and linked objectives, all of which are pretty hard to follow when on a team, so story focused mission architect has seemed more like a solo activity to me. I'm not afraid to start teams, but the only (non-MA) story arcs I really go out of my way to start a team for are Tina McIntyre, Maria Jenkins and Flux's story arcs (because everyone loves beating up Praetorian arch villains, and everyone loves beating up Frostfire). So for solo SFMA content, I mostly post here on this forum to promote it. It's not a great way to reach new people though, because a player reading this forum is presumably already interested in Mission Architect. For team based SFMA content, not sure? What makes a good SFMA story arc for a team? I love doing the Frostfire mission on a big team, but it's closer to a farm (hordes of mobs to kill, lots of exp and levels) than a story (barely any text to read; I guess we have a cut scene where Frostfire tells you he's not just a regular villain, he's actually very Complicated?). Edited Friday at 07:39 PM by Police Woman 2 1
Darmian Posted Saturday at 12:31 AM Author Posted Saturday at 12:31 AM Good points @Police Woman. Breaking things into Team Play and Solo. AE SFMA Arcs: The Meteors (Arc id 42079) | Dark Deeds in Galaxy City: Part One. (Arc id 26756) X | Dark Deeds in Galaxy City: Part Two. (Arc id 26952) | Dark Deeds in Galaxy City: Part Three. (Arc id 27233) Darker Deeds: Part One (Arc id 28374) | Darker Deeds: Part Two. (Arc id 28536) | Darker Deeds: Part Three. (Arc id 29252) | Darkest Before Dawn: Part One (Arc id 29891) | Darkest Before Dawn: Part Two (Arc id 30210) | Darkest Before Dawn: Part Three (Arc id 30560) | Bridge of Forever ( Arc id 36642) | The Cassini Division (Arc id 37104) X | The House of Gaunt Saints (Arc id 37489) X | The Spark of the Blind (Arc id 40403) | Damnatio Memoriae (Arc id 41140) X | The Eve of War (Arc id 41583) X | Spirals: Part One. (Arc id 55109) | Spirals: Part Two. (Arc id 55358) | Spirals: Part Three. (Arc id 57197) I Sing of Arms and the Man (Arc id 42617) | Three Sisters (Arc id 43013) (Pre War Praetorian Loyalist. Pre War Praetorian Resistance. Pre ITF Cimerora. Post ITF Cimerora. X = Dev Choice/Hall of Fame )
cranebump Posted Saturday at 12:32 AM Posted Saturday at 12:32 AM (edited) 5 hours ago, Police Woman said: Most of the AE story arcs I've played are heavy on mission briefing text, clues and linked objectives, all of which are pretty hard to follow when on a team, so story focused mission architect has seemed more like a solo activity to me. I script with the soloist in mind, and usually an experienced one at that. I'm thinking new players have enough other things to do before they decide to delve into player-made content. I'm not sure what can be done to truly raise the profile any more than it is, other than seeing some player-made content becoming in-game content. I'd say the chances of that happening or pretty small, at best. The return of Dev's Choice would certainly help matters, however. Edited Saturday at 12:35 AM by cranebump 1 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.
Clave Dark 5 Posted Saturday at 02:23 AM Posted Saturday at 02:23 AM 6 hours ago, Police Woman said: Most of the AE story arcs I've played are heavy on mission briefing text, clues and linked objectives, all of which are pretty hard to follow when on a team, so story focused mission architect has seemed more like a solo activity to me. [etc.] Agreed. I've mentioned this here already, but over the holiday there was this one guy I kept running into asking for players to come along on his AE arc, "not a farm!" and he recruited heavily. The arc I think was just one mission, the winter Croatoa map, with some standard enemies renamed to Christmas references, such as a Council werewolf renamed "Max" after the Grinch's dog. That was it. I think I checked the story and it was basically as short and thin a story as a Radio's text, "Whoa, a Christmas invasion, and they've stolen the P.L.O.T. device!" or whatever. No clues, no linked objectives requiring you to run back and forth or to scour the map for, no fear of custom foes. And he was getting takers, I joined hsi team like four times just for something different to do. I was planning to maybe start a series of such "AE Radios" and see if I couldn't get teams like he did, but learning about the XP drop to anything AE, it seems a bit unlikely to take off. But hey, if he could get people to join, maybe??? 3 Tim "Black Scorpion" Sweeney: Matt (Posi) used to say that players would find the shortest path to the rewards even if it was a completely terrible play experience that would push them away from the game... ╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ Clave's Sure-Fire Secrets to Enjoying City Of Heroes Ignore those farming chores, skip your market homework, play any power sets that you want, and ignore anyone who says otherwise. This game isn't hard work, it's easy! Go have fun! ╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Darmian Posted Saturday at 03:46 PM Author Posted Saturday at 03:46 PM Well this is a great start and long may it continue! 1 AE SFMA Arcs: The Meteors (Arc id 42079) | Dark Deeds in Galaxy City: Part One. (Arc id 26756) X | Dark Deeds in Galaxy City: Part Two. (Arc id 26952) | Dark Deeds in Galaxy City: Part Three. (Arc id 27233) Darker Deeds: Part One (Arc id 28374) | Darker Deeds: Part Two. (Arc id 28536) | Darker Deeds: Part Three. (Arc id 29252) | Darkest Before Dawn: Part One (Arc id 29891) | Darkest Before Dawn: Part Two (Arc id 30210) | Darkest Before Dawn: Part Three (Arc id 30560) | Bridge of Forever ( Arc id 36642) | The Cassini Division (Arc id 37104) X | The House of Gaunt Saints (Arc id 37489) X | The Spark of the Blind (Arc id 40403) | Damnatio Memoriae (Arc id 41140) X | The Eve of War (Arc id 41583) X | Spirals: Part One. (Arc id 55109) | Spirals: Part Two. (Arc id 55358) | Spirals: Part Three. (Arc id 57197) I Sing of Arms and the Man (Arc id 42617) | Three Sisters (Arc id 43013) (Pre War Praetorian Loyalist. Pre War Praetorian Resistance. Pre ITF Cimerora. Post ITF Cimerora. X = Dev Choice/Hall of Fame )
ZamuelNow Posted Saturday at 11:38 PM Posted Saturday at 11:38 PM Been reading the posts here and...I have thoughts. I'll ponder them some more after tomorrow's MASS because it connects to some of my thoughts on...not sure if 'the Homecoming meta' is the right term. Especially since it's perception of mindset, as opposed to the actual meta. But I guess a preview for whenever I post those thoughts is, the Abandoned Sewer Trial and the oil spill in Oil Spill... 1 1 AE Arcs: Search for @ZamuelNow Dhahabu Kingdom and the Indelible Curse of Hate [60044] and Dhahabu Kingdom and the Unfathomable Nightmare of Sand [61528] Consideration of Knowledge [65341]
Clave Dark 5 Posted 23 hours ago Posted 23 hours ago Looking forward to seeing that. 1 Tim "Black Scorpion" Sweeney: Matt (Posi) used to say that players would find the shortest path to the rewards even if it was a completely terrible play experience that would push them away from the game... ╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ Clave's Sure-Fire Secrets to Enjoying City Of Heroes Ignore those farming chores, skip your market homework, play any power sets that you want, and ignore anyone who says otherwise. This game isn't hard work, it's easy! Go have fun! ╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
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