Story Arc and Mission - feedback

[BurtHutt]

So, July 5, a group of friends and I just completed our second KW arc. The reviews are not good. I really appreciate HC and all they do but these arcs and missions are not enjoyable in teams. Walls of text, running around, meeting the team etc.

 

They have slightly improved over previous HC offerings but still...my friends and I have never gone back and played through any of the arcs after giving them the initial try. 

 

The Live Devs started to change the mission design and style towards the end and for good reason. Are me and my band of Merry Metas alone in this thinking or are others also feeling this? I know most players don't come on here but this is a start. So, fellow supers, what says you?

[Psyonico]

I’m torn.  On one hand I agree that the missions don’t lend well to teaming, on the other, I feel like there is some good writing in these new arcs.

[BurtHutt]

2 hours ago, Psyonico said:

I’m torn.  On one hand I agree that the missions don’t lend well to teaming, on the other, I feel like there is some good writing in these new arcs.

Which parts did you enjoy the writing? I may have to read that material again.

 

I would like to suggest doing more stuff in the style of DFB, some of the iTrials, Yin...that stuff works and is played a lot. Actually played because we enjoy it and not for the rewards alone.

[Psyonico]

So, I really liked Alexander “the great”’s arc and I have started the Crey rogue arc (can’t remember the contract’s name). They’re both pretty good.

[Rudra]

17 minutes ago, Psyonico said:

I have started the Crey rogue arc (can’t remember the contract’s name).

Erin West. And I love how upset the NPCs get when you make mention of things like Crey's Folly.

[Psyonico]

2 hours ago, Rudra said:

Erin West. And I love how upset the NPCs get when you make mention of things like Crey's Folly.

My favorite part is that I chose “Lord/Master” for my pronouns and so now everyone in the arc refers to my character as “Lord Say-Tin”

[shortguy on indom]

• DID NOT MAKE IT A POINT TO READ THESE NEW ARCS, SO NO IDEA. JUST CLICKED ON THE CHOICES UNTIL MISSION COMPLETED.  NOT KEEN ON SOME OF THE HYPE, JUST NOTICED THEY WERE VERY LONG ARCS WHEN RUNNING SOLO IN OURO.  AFTER THE PROGRESS BAR IFS FULL, STILL 3 MORE MISHES.  OTHER THAN THAT, THE NEW ENEMIES WERE FUN IMHO.

[BurtHutt]

9 hours ago, shortguy on indom said:

• DID NOT MAKE IT A POINT TO READ THESE NEW ARCS, SO NO IDEA. JUST CLICKED ON THE CHOICES UNTIL MISSION COMPLETED.  NOT KEEN ON SOME OF THE HYPE, JUST NOTICED THEY WERE VERY LONG ARCS WHEN RUNNING SOLO IN OURO.  AFTER THE PROGRESS BAR IFS FULL, STILL 3 MORE MISHES.  OTHER THAN THAT, THE NEW ENEMIES WERE FUN IMHO.

This was kinda my team's feedback too. 

 

All of the others posting here, did any of you run this in a team? Or did you solo?

[Rudra]

12 minutes ago, BurtHutt said:

This was kinda my team's feedback too. 

 

All of the others posting here, did any of you run this in a team? Or did you solo?

2-person team. All of the KW arcs.

[mistagoat]

As of last night I've completed all the new arcs/contacts in KW. I duo'd all of them with a buddy, mostly at +2x8 on "not-50s". For the most part we enjoyed the arcs. There were a couple questionable choices and I don't like the heavy use of "map not available" but generally they were all pretty fun and had some unique mission designs. They are all a bit on the long side side, playing through them the first time and not really doing any stealthing since we wanted the xp, each arc took around 2-3 hours. Admittedly some of that was learning the ropes on these new arcs.

 

I really liked the one where you have to split up Alpha Team but also in that arc was a mission where you get deep into a cave and then click something and then the whole cave is filled with tightly packed DE and 6 waves of DE ambushes while "map not available". They really setting us up to fail on that one. Next time I'll have my buddy stay at the door and TP me when the ambushes come. At least we'd have a safe place to start from but you'd never know that playing it the first time.

 

The amount of dialog choices is way too high, and the amount of "answer one million questions" interactions with the quest givers and npcs was way too high. There are some fun bit in there but it's just way too much clicking through dialog screens. Way WAY too much! Worst of all is that those myriad choices have no effect on the outcome, they're just flavor and the next mission will always be the same so what was the point of making click 20 times?

 

The inconsistency of contact requirements with your quest giver was frustrating as well. I have to physically return to Erin West for debriefing after every single mission despite being able to call her. Meanwhile Robert Kogan also wants a debrief after after every mission but he's happy to do it via a phone call. Not the end of the world but an annoyance for sure!

[BurtHutt]

4 hours ago, mistagoat said:

As of last night I've completed all the new arcs/contacts in KW. I duo'd all of them with a buddy, mostly at +2x8 on "not-50s". For the most part we enjoyed the arcs. There were a couple questionable choices and I don't like the heavy use of "map not available" but generally they were all pretty fun and had some unique mission designs. They are all a bit on the long side side, playing through them the first time and not really doing any stealthing since we wanted the xp, each arc took around 2-3 hours. Admittedly some of that was learning the ropes on these new arcs.

 

I really liked the one where you have to split up Alpha Team but also in that arc was a mission where you get deep into a cave and then click something and then the whole cave is filled with tightly packed DE and 6 waves of DE ambushes while "map not available". They really setting us up to fail on that one. Next time I'll have my buddy stay at the door and TP me when the ambushes come. At least we'd have a safe place to start from but you'd never know that playing it the first time.

 

The amount of dialog choices is way too high, and the amount of "answer one million questions" interactions with the quest givers and npcs was way too high. There are some fun bit in there but it's just way too much clicking through dialog screens. Way WAY too much! Worst of all is that those myriad choices have no effect on the outcome, they're just flavor and the next mission will always be the same so what was the point of making click 20 times?

 

The inconsistency of contact requirements with your quest giver was frustrating as well. I have to physically return to Erin West for debriefing after every single mission despite being able to call her. Meanwhile Robert Kogan also wants a debrief after after every mission but he's happy to do it via a phone call. Not the end of the world but an annoyance for sure!

Great stuff here. I totally agree on your dialogue take. Also, they're just way too long overall. Maybe they could've been TFs or something...I dunno...

 

It is odd that I don't see too many full teams running this. 

[Forager]

There will never be a lot of overlap between people who like blasting bad guys in brightly colored and noisy battles, watching the numbers go up...

 

And reading.

 

Long dialog trees and excessive focus on the NPCs comes from designers who haven't put the player first. They love their story and their characters so much and they just know you will too!

 

In this game, if need me to know something about the story... it should fit in the nav bar. If you want me to love a character, you have to do it with one or two lines during the mission.

 

And this is before we make any critique of the quality of the story or the writing.

 

This is real common in AE. Designers shoehorn a story into a game engine that does not have the mechanics to tell it, so they do it with a wall of text.

[lemming]

Some of the new arcs, I probably won't run with most of my characters because of questionable choices that don't align with what I like, but they are fairly well written, and at least entertainingly. 

The Dap Dap and Alexander arcs are ones I'll probably repeat the most, at least if they change the ambush mechanic in the DD Protect the Lab since the waiting is the worst on that one.

 

The long cut scenes need a "no thanks" ability.  For Dap Dap, right before you go to the next floor should be a terminal "Do you want the cut scene?" ability.

 

I'm one of those weirdos that keeps General chat up.  I constantly see chatter about why some lore isn't explored, though sometimes it's because the player didn't know about some of the new arcs.

 

The main complaint I have is that for some of the actions needed in the arcs, you have to know the lore very well.  My character might know what to do, but I am not going to remember that Number Six has an important Crey connection.   Synapse or Manti would have been more likely, but a clue thrown the way of the player would have been good in Erin's arc.    The arc in Sharkhead where you go talk to old contacts at least tell you who to talk to.

[Forager]

On 7/8/2025 at 11:03 AM, lemming said:

The main complaint I have is that for some of the actions needed in the arcs, you have to know the lore very well. 

 

They're banking on the audience getting some of those sweet reference-getting endorphins.

 

If you've ever seen Pitch Meeting: "He's from the other movie!"

 

 

Edited Thursday at 04:16 PM by Forager

[Nightmarer]

So far I've only tried the Alexander "The Great" arc and I couldn't finish. I certainly did not expect in this game to see more "kill X" mishes, especially being 30 X to kill. I also did not enjoy traveling around Khallisti Wharf to go from one mission to another 1.20 miles away or going back to contact a la fedex just to have to move 1.20 miles to next mish. And yep, TT and Mission Teleporter have a long recharge. Anyway, could not even finish so i abandoned it half way.  Also, found the wall of text captions when inside missions intrusive and annoying. Might try another arc sometime but so far, not impressed with the one I tried.