To Carve One's Own Destiny - Hero Mission Arc (Levels 30-54)

[Zakur]

Hey, folks! I decided to take a stab at making an Architect story arc that builds directly off of established canon and events occurring in the game with a unique progression. I'd love for you to take a look at it if you're interested in a very story-intensive arc!

To Carve One's Own Destiny

Heroic Story Arc for levels 30-54

 

In an unstable time where powerful factions scramble to grow their strength in the wake of Praetoria's fall, an outsider hero calls for your aid to find and take down a powerful and ambitious villain by the name of Hollowfrost before he can establish a foothold as a new major threat within Paragon City. Team up with and fight alongside the rambunctious superhero Storm Warning as you follow the trail of this villain, carving through whatever evil forces stand in your way, all while slowly unraveling more insidious plots hidden behind the scenes...

 

(Arc ID: 69074)

 

This arc takes place after Issue 28, Page 2 and references details of a few existing story arcs, but should be able to be played and enjoyed standalone.

 

If you decide to give this arc a try, feel free to share your thoughts below, just remember to hide any major spoilers when discussing them.

[sponazgul]

Zakur, I'll check it out, thanks for creating it and sharing it here in the forums.

[sponazgul]

I just ran your arc, with a level 50 Earth/Martial dominator.

 

I found the arc very well-polished - I don’t think I found any typos, but typos are often invisible to me.

 

I particularly enjoyed the framing done with the contact Storm Warning, the heart of the story.

 

When I play these player-made stories, I keep in mind that I’ll want to play more than once - once slowly paced so I can read the story and hopefully additionally where I just beat up stuff. The arc is a full five missions but once one knows the larger map and objectives, could be played fairly quickly.

 

The standard enemies are very punchable, and the custom enemies were kind of cool.

 

I had to get used to how the mission text structure was different.

 

Usually, the mission text is like this:

 

Contact: [Provides mission intro, leading to a decision point by the character to proceed]
Me: I accept.

Contact: [Send off details, acknowledging the hero is going to do the thing]
 

Your mission text was more like this -

 

Contact: [Provides some assertions, action not yet articulated]
Me: [Asks a question, or makes own statement]
Contact: [Responds and then articulates the mission. Hero (me) is assumed to accept the mission without being able to explicitly do that]
 

I’m not saying that this is bad, I played around with the standard Accept text in my Batman butler-assisted vigilante arc Allegedly, Your Death and it was called out in feedback but was largely forgiven. Just wanted you to be aware. I got used to it, and I felt that the story and interaction with Storm Warning was strong.

 

I’ll be happy to play it again, particularly with my various Science Heroes who will like punching the final map enemies.

[Zakur]

Thank you for trying the arc and sharing your thoughts! I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it.
 

33 minutes ago, sponazgul said:

I had to get used to how the mission text structure was different.

 

Usually, the mission text is like this:

 

Contact: [Provides mission intro, leading to a decision point by the character to proceed]
Me: I accept.

Contact: [Send off details, acknowledging the hero is going to do the thing]
 

Your mission text was more like this -

 

Contact: [Provides some assertions, action not yet articulated]
Me: [Asks a question, or makes own statement]
Contact: [Responds and then articulates the mission. Hero (me) is assumed to accept the mission without being able to explicitly do that]
 

I’m not saying that this is bad, I played around with the standard Accept text in my Batman butler-assisted vigilante arc Allegedly, Your Death and it was called out in feedback but was largely forgiven. Just wanted you to be aware. I got used to it, and I felt that the story and interaction with Storm Warning was strong.

It is true that I broke the conventions as far as the contact dialogue went, but this was an intentional decision to follow along with the more conversational form of writing that more recent story arcs have followed. Part of the reason for this is to get over the current Architect limitations of not having the ability to converse with NPCs in missions like more recent story arcs have been able to accomplish. By having the writing of the contact dialogue written more like a conversation, it allows the player and the contact to directly interact with one another, albeit in a very limited scope.

It isn't perfect, and it does certainly break the conventional format, which would be necessary in many circumstances. In this case I felt that it wasn't necessary to structure it in this way, however, as the fact that it's framed as a superhero team-up implies a certain degree of expected cooperation. I consider it a small sacrifice to make in order to add a greater depth to the character of Storm Warning and allow the player to interact with her as more than just a contact. Ideally, this sort of interaction would just happen in-mission. Since that isn't a possibility, however, I think it is enough to delegate the choice of whether to do or not do a mission to the player's ability to simply leave the mission arc whenever they wish.

I know you were saying that this wasn't a bad thing, but I wanted to clarify my intentions for designing the contact dialogue in the way that I did so there's a clear reason laid out for breaking convention for this arc.

Once again, thank you for sharing your thoughts, and I appreciate your time, feedback and insight!

[sponazgul]

I appreciate you sharing your thoughts on that element of the design! I felt that it worked.

[TerroirNoir3]

I played it, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I may try to include it in my TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE Reviews (I've got it screenshotted).  But I need to have a think about how to do that without spoilering the plot and with this arc that will need some careful thought.  Between just glossing over some stuff or using spoiler tags.  

 

Anyway, it gets my recommendation!

 

 

 

[Darmian]

Played it and really had fun with it.  Great arc. I see why you chose to interface with the player the way you did, and it works for me.  May not work for others but in my opinion it's not egregious at all.  Excellent.

[TerroirNoir3]

Ok, I have done a write up.  But as Araminta Levin and not Engineria.  Just testing the waters with my other character.  

[sponazgul]

31 minutes ago, TerroirNoir3 said:

Ok, I have done a write up.  But as Araminta Levin and not Engineria.  Just testing the waters with my other character.  

this is joyous news!

[Darmian]

Just now, sponazgul said:

this is joyous news!

Time to go read. See you over on the other page!