The Efficiency Council (arc id 67008)

[Police Woman]

Because I play CoH instead of going to therapy, I present for your consideration, ripped from the headlines:

 

 

Content warnings: real life has made me want to beat up fascists in CoH, so this arc has a strong political slant. I marked it "Ideal for Teams" since I'm trying to make a story arc that would be interesting to do on a team - there's a couple AVs, there's lots of Council to stomp, and I'm experimenting with the "no clues" style suggested on this forum, to see if that helps the flow.  However, there are NPC allies to help against AVs, and a decent soloer can certainly do this arc.

 

 

I'd be interested in any feedback to make this story arc better, more fun, or more topical.  Thanks in advance!

 

Edited March 21 by Police Woman

[Clave Dark 5]

 Ripped from today's headlines!   That was fun, but I'm glad I ran it on a tough toon with difficulty levels set low, I'm no power gamer. 

 

I thought it went just fine without clues; you know I'm sort of ag'in 'em in general and this provides another example why: it's a straightforward story that doesn't need more embellishing and there's no shame to that.  One thing writing for the MA has taught me is that brevity counts for a lot, and I don't feel this sort of story really needs any long-form recap of what I just did, or all that much extra description:

• "You defeated the Blue Meanies trying to make everyone listen to Laurence Welk by blowing up the factory they were manufacturing their square haircuts in!"  ("Yes, I know")
• "Statesman's Ghost sighs heavily after trying to explain it to the Rikti Monkey again and getting nowhere beyond frustrated."

This isn't a hard and fast rule for me though; try and set a "this never works" rule on any creative act, and some smarmy dude will come along and prove it can and should have been done, and I've done lots of clues in the past myself, especially on weirder stuff where I let my verbose nature run riot - and be warned: I will again - but for more direct stories like this, I feel it helped the story zip right by smoothly.

[JKCarrier]

VERY well-done arc, PW. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Extremely clever how you came up with in-game analogues for the various real-world institutions under attack. I was also very amused that even

Spoiler

Efficiency Expert Pither

was calling B.S. on this phony enterprise. 😉 
I was a little under-levelled for this one (25), and had some trouble with the Elite Bosses. But nothing a few trays full of Super Inspirations couldn't cure. 😄 
Thanks for a fun, cathartic, fascist-smashin' good time!

[Forager]

To be fair, Dual Origin enhancements are a waste.

[Forager]

This was a really good arc... maybe the best one I've played yet. I'm not into politics, but I understood all the references and found them hilarious. I'm blown away at how consistently you were able to adapt them to Paragon City... the awaken inspiration reference cracked me up.

 

The fights on +1/x3 were a blast. I love ambushes. I usually stealth through AE arcs, but I did these as a KM and had a ton of fun. The missions were straightforward and made sense.

 

I have no notes... bravo.

[ZamuelNow]

Thoroughly enjoyed the arc.  Flowed well without clues.  Pity we only have that one official hospital map but it worked for the story.  Mildly disappointed the "150 year old patients" moment wasn't a reference to the Bad People, Good Intentions arc (as of now in CoH, the MediPorter covers the elderly and disabled).  Though it works fine as is, noting that the Council doesn't know what they're doing as opposed to the concept of attacking one group hurts others that are more vulnerable.  Didn't see any typos and the only thing of note was:

 

SWAT Officer - This hapless citizen is in over his head.

 

Which seemed generic for an officer but most might not notice.

[Police Woman]

So I really liked @ZamuelNow's suggestion to link the mediporter mission with Roy Cooling's arc, and I made some changes to incorporate that idea.

 

Changes based on feedback:

Spoiler

Mission 2:
Nurse's rescue dialog is now "Our mediporters help the elderly! Those goons were trying to call it fraud!" to reference Roy Cooling's arc.

 

Mission 3:
SWAT Officer renamed to Sergeant Russell (an ally from Roy Cooling's arc).  Gave him a better description to match, and his rescue dialog is now "I heard about how you saved the mediporter system, $name. There's no way I'm working for Vandal!"

 

Mission 4:
Changed "tramples a Toyota" to "tramples a sports car" to avoid trademark infringement.

 

 

Thanks for the play-through and the ideas!

[Forager]

You can say Toyota in a work of fiction. That's not trademark infringement. The line is way better with a brand name imo.

 

Intellectual property rights are one of the most misunderstood topics on the internet, so don't take my word for it. This is one that can be sorted out pretty easily with a search.

Edited Tuesday at 02:39 PM by Forager

[ZamuelNow]

It's not that you can't say it in a work of fiction, just that there's a fuzzy line with the CoC.  And AE has been hit with weird restrictions before.  The specter of the Marvel case hangs over the game.  Why risk it?

[Forager]

There is no risk.

 

It's not trademark infrringement or a violation of any intellectual property law.

 

It's not a violation of the code of conduct.