Bubbawheat

Aha, I figured out what I want to do with my little pumpkin: The 10 basic AT symbols. Just finished out the hero side, just need to do villainside (which are quite a bit harder).

Stuart Townsend was originally Aragorn.
<insert name I forgot> was originally Capt. Kirk
<insert name I forgot> was originally Andy in Reaper.

Happens all the time, you only rarely hear about it.

(although, I've never actually seen video of Eric Stoltz as Marty, even though I knew of this since the DVD release)

A Clone of Your Own? Is up on CoHMR and ready for reviewing.

Who Dares Win #454805 by @Zaphir

The Villain Reedeems: In this arc, you play the role of a Sky Raider Captain who is planning a raid on the Terra Volta core. Throughout the arc, he schemes against Crey to get supplies for the raid, plots against the Freakshow to prevent any interference, gets betrayed by his own Sky Raiders, who are working with the Rikti - a common enemy, and he ends up sacrificing himself in the end to protect Paragon City. A fully fleshed out character that does feel like he redeems himself in the end.

The Arc as an Arc: I thought this was a very interesting device for the arc. Being warned at the arc description, I was aware from the beginning that the actions were not my character, but a recreation of another character and for me it worked well, making the character interesting while not feeling like my own character's decisions were being compromised. There is a lot of text, and it is all well written and interesting. I really enjoyed this arc and hope it does well in the contest.

Good luck, and my as-I-go tweets are below as usual.

#CoHMA Playing Who Dares Win # 454805 by @ Zaphir entered in Aeon's Third Challenge.
#CoHMA This sounds like an interesting arc told in first person as a Sky Raider Captain.
#CoHMA M1 Seems this is a Sky Captain in charge of a Terra Volta raid, and this is his holographic recording of the events.
#CoHMA M1: Part one of his plan is to get some technology from Crey using the help of a mole.
#CoHMA M1: The Mole: Lt. Stavros is awfully well read and enjoys spouting famous quotes.
#CoHMA M1: Interesting, destroyed a containment generator and released a group of DE - friendly to me.
#CoHMA M1: Now I (as the captain) have a way into TV, a way to protect myself, and a way to transport the core out. Good to go.

#CoHMA M2: I (as the captain) talk about my time in the Rikti war through the mission clue, though my current task is to preempt some freaks
#CoHMA M2: The way to stop the Freaks? Humiliation. Namely, plant some fear inducing drugs on their leader - who's afraid of bees.

#CoHMA M3: Looks like there's betrayal afoot. Our hangar with our supplies is wide open and unguarded, and my people aren't responding.
#CoHMA M3: our office is empty, except for some clues and dead bodies. And a hero has shown up to investigate... great.

#CoHMA M4: Nice mini-explanation of why sky raider porters can teleport much better than players.
#CoHMA M4: So now it's time for revenge on the Sky Raider betrayers. They're <Renegade Sky Raiders>
#CoHMA M4: Took out the three Captains who sold "me" out to the Rikti, now on to the last one who I think is heading to Terra Volta already.

#CoHMA M5: Finishing the Terra Volta trial tri-fecta with Rikti, having fought Freaks and Sky Raiders already.
#CoHMA M5: And this is where "I" go good. The Rikti want to destroy the reactor... I just wanted to steal it.
#CoHMA M5: Defeated the leader, and activated the bomb. No time or expertise to disarm, but there's a porter on my back and.. I know a place
#CoHMA All in all, not a bad story, quite a good ending. I enjoyed it.

I also got a foam pumpkin this year, although I only got a small pumpkin and I'm having a hard time trying to create a design myself that will work well for the size. I'm hoping to enter it in this month's art jam if it turns out well.

Not really any new tech in this issue, just more. Possibly some new tech in the new TFs, and the Alpha slot might be changed from GR beta. Everything else is just more. Very awesome more, but just more.

Interestingly enough, I saw your new post and just submitted my arc to CoHMR. Question: Is Fair Trade in the spirit of the challenge and you just prefer not to submit it, or is it just an arc?

I've been in a big superhero animated movie kick the past couple weeks and was wondering if there was any consensus on which side makes better straight to DVD animated movies. Also, if there's any others out there that I haven't listed, let me know so I can find them and watch them.

DC:

Wonder Woman
Green Lantern: First Flight
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
Superman: Doomsday
Justice League: New Frontier
Batman: Gotham Knight

DC seems to me to have a larger budget for their animated movies. They have recognizable voice actors, and they seem to have better special effects, and I've enjoyed all of them quite a bit so far.

Marvel:

Hulk vs.
Planet Hulk
Ultimate Avengers (1 and 2)

Unless I'm missing a big chunk of movies, Marvel seems to have a smaller library. And aside from Hulk, they seem to be avoiding a lot of their big names. And the ones I've seen, the marvel movies have focused more on fighting, while DC seems to have a bit more depth of story.

When I say "fool" I mean the stupid character, the comic relief. TV Tropes also calls it The Ditz. It can be from TV, film, comic books, even literature (though that one would be harder to link or get votes for). So, who's up for it?

Oh yeah, I forgot to reply to that PM because I didn't have time when I first read it, but I think the new clue does work a lot better.

In other words, they hired a bunch of people so they could release "Going Rogue". Now that the expansion has been released, they are *slightly* reducing their staff to work on future issues, which is still many more people than were working at Paragon Studios a couple years ago.

Last night I ran the next arc on my list, Ramification TM's

The Vengeful Heart #454861 by @Jinkobi

The Player's Fall From Grace: In this arc, the player is drawn to the path of the Vigilante when your nemesis Darkosis kills your sidekick Bowstar who you raised since she was a child. Though there doesn't seem to be much of a character arc as you are out for blood from the very beginning even before Bowstar gets killed. This arc also uses a device which is very hit or miss with me - it shoehorns you as a player into a very specific role. And this is where most of the fall from grace comes from. It's almost as if you are playing someone else's character and are finding out what happened to them.

The Arc as an Arc: This arc gives you an entire past: a sidekick you raised as a child, a nemesis, the contact mentions you've been on the path of a vigilante for a long time, and you are told that you've killed every enemy instead of arresting them. It might be better if I was warned at the beginning about this, or even make it so that I'm playing a holographic recreation and actually am another character, but I felt a little overwhelmed at all the information to process at the beginning of the first mission, and as a player, I saw no reason to kill everyone in the first mission and was surprised when I was told that my character made this decision against the contact's orders, and without any reason that I as a player saw. But other than that, the story was told pretty well, though I was a little jarred by the occasional popup of all yellow text, or the busy dialog in all red.

Before we get to the tweets, I get the chance to make a couple responses first.

I have decided to enter one of my own arcs in this challenge, and I would appreciate the feedback as much as any of you. I'd especially like to know how well I do on making the player villain feel like he's doing good at the end, and any suggestions on how to make that point stronger. Thanks

A Clone of Your Own? #453091 by Bubbawheat Level range 30+

No one else with any favorites? Or just too many lists here?

For a while, all my Pinnacle characters were Heroes and my Libery characters were villains, but there would always be something going on the other side that I would want to jump in on, so I made one character on the opposite side on each of those servers. The other servers are just whatever I feel like it, usually groups coming off of the forums I frequent.

I've been a fan of her version of Carry on Wayward Son for a couple years now when she was 10.

Read about the designated helper first.

It's more of a feeling. I did follow that you're helping her to find her brother, which is why I suggested that you make him a stronger presence in the arc. As you say, he's the motivating factor, but he only feels like a side note. You might want to think about making him the driving motivation for Angela to reach out to someone to help her

Continuing onto the third challenge, which is another old arc, and one that I played and reviewed earlier in this thread as The Greater Good from the first challenge, Arrowrose's

The Vigilante # 395861 by @Gypsy Rose

The Fall From Grace: In this arc, you are joining a Robin Hood-type organization called The Greater Good, also you're being covertly asked for help by the very same greeter of said organization. Angela Goodheart has lost her brother who joined recently and needs someone more on the inside to help find him. Throughout the arc, the player does some less than noble acts to get into the organization, and at the same time finds out that The Greater Good is up to no good. As far as the player falling from grace, there's a bank robbery, a jailbreak, and a kidnapping. It may just be the vigilante in me, but it never really seemed to sell these as being that serious. There's just the reassurance that it's for "the greater good" (which turns out to just be for "The Greater Good") and Angela's reassuring smile - which used to be a form of mind control, but that seems to have been removed. There just seems to be a lack of deciding to do it for the right reasons, and instead you're just going along with it. And in the end, you were really doing the right thing. It might be more of a kicker if Mr. Richardson turned out to be more or less innocent, which would make missions 1 and 3 more wrongful. Currently he seems to be an accomplice in the villainy.

The Arc as an Arc: I think I tend to write more for arcs that I like, but there's just something missing that I can't quite put my finger on. I did enjoy playing this arc, technically three times. Once in its original version for the first challenge, once during this week's MA Superteam, and once solo for better notes. The one thing that the MA team noticed was what felt like an abundance of crumpled notes left all over the place. And what I noticed in my tweets, is that mission three felt like it was backtracking in the narrative. There's not really any new information, and you're doing essentially the same thing you were in the first mission - committing a crime for the greater good to get into The Greater Good. I think it might actually work better to switch the second and third missions, though it may just be dependent on your own moral compass whether kidnapping or a jailbreak is more unlawful. I also feel that the missing brother, Victor, should be more present. Possibly making an appearance in the Zig as the third mission, or in the final mission.

As usual, my running tweets are below. Good luck in the contest! Oh, and I forgot to say it but good luck to Venture as well!

#CoHMA Playing The Vigilante # 395861 by @ Gypsy Rose entered into Aeon's 3rd challenge, and kinda my 3rd runthrough
#CoHMA Contact is Angela Goodheart, previously mind controlling recruiter for "The Greater Good" now greeter with an agenda.
#CoHMA And "The Greater Good" is Robin Hood-type hero org, my first job is to rob a bank controlled by a greedy rich man.
#CoHMA M1: My assurances that I'm doing the right thing are "He's a very rich, very greedy man" and "We'll make sure the money.. does good."
#CoHMA M1: It seems there have been changes already since Saturday. Longbow has been replaced by custom bank guards.
#CoHMA M1: Found a crumpled note in a safe saying "Keep this safe - JW" Not sure why this one should be crumpled though if it's "safe".

#CoHMA M2: Off to rescue the Robin Hood of Greater Good - J. Worthington, sworn enemy of bank owner Mr. Richardson, but working together?
#CoHMA M2: These Psi-cops are killing me, maybe I should have brought something with *some* protection to psi.
#CoHMA M2: Psi-cops were challenging, but fun. Forgot how it is to play staying on my toes (+0x3 btw) Lot of death, but I've got RotP.

#CoHMA M3: Off to kidnap Nikki - spoiled daughter of Mr. Richardson. Also found curious note from contact's missing brother in JW's cell.
#CoHMA M3: Problem is, not sure how this mission furthers the plot, seems like back to square one with just another money job.
#CoHMA M1 is the setup with the bank job, M2 frees JW and has first clue of missing bro, but M3 is a kidnapping for money, like M1.

#CoHMA M3: found appt book with meetings with JW - which we already suspected in M1.
#CoHMA M3: There is a nice little joke about all the crumpled paper lying around. Though I passed a glowie that I need to find...
#CoHMA M3: And another crumpled note from JW just saying "You will be sorry" but no way of knowing who it is to. Me? Bro? Richardson?

#CoHMA M4: I'm officially being inducted into "The Greater Good", contact thinks he's up to no good, but I need to check to make sure.
#CoHMA M4: Note to self: don't keep computer passwords written on a piece of paper marked "Passwords".
#CoHMA M4: Found the two sentences that explain everything: JW is drugging and brainwashing heroes to work for his own greed.
#CoHMA M4: Fought J. Worthington, released gas to free his mind-controlled minions, and contact says bro is a-ok.

I created "Afrogator" after misreading someone else's name.
I've considered creating "Tinny Solder" but I don't think enough people would get it.
After becoming obsessed with "Burnt Matchstick" I saved the name on every server I could. (only missing Freedom now)
Another one was "Rubber Poo Monster" inspired by the Golgothan from Dogma, although I created a bio that made it extra funny for me - he's a stuck up british method actor researching his next role and loathing most of the time in his costume.
There's also "Saved by Death" and probably a few others, but none are very memorable to me at the moment.

On to the first arc for the third Aeon Challenge, even though it's not a new arc, just one that fits the criteria already.

Splintered Shields #253991 by @Venture

Fall from grace and Redemption: This arc goes for both concepts in one place, although in my opinion, this arc isn't really about the fall or rise, but about what happens afterwards. You're investigating a Longbow officer who, it turns out, is smuggling drugs to the Rogue Isles to turn a profit. And during this investigation, you keep running into an Arachnos agent who is actually looking out for someone besides himself and trying to stop this smuggling ring for all the right reasons. It ends badly for Livingston, the Longbow Officer, as he treats himself to the Ballista process with deadly results. Meanwhile, Kobushi's fate is more up in the air as he becomes hunted by Arachnos, but seems to still harbor heroic intentions.

The Arc as an Arc: I enjoyed the arc quite a bit, even the Malta in the last mission wasn't too bad, as many more annoying mobs were replaced by slightly less annoying, but still thematic, customs. Even though what I assume was meant to be a sapper-lite was still pretty effective.

As usual, my as-I-go tweets are below.

#CoHMA Playing Splintered Shields #253991 by Venture, being submitted to Dr. Aeon's 3rd challenge.
#CoHMA Contact is a longbow operative who has some hard feelings towards Vanguard.
#CoHMA M1: Off to take down Operative Kobushi who's attacking an Independence Port base.
#CoHMA M1: Hmm... the longbow here are hostile to me. I guess they weren't told I was coming.
#CoHMA M1: Oh, she's mad at those Longbow for shooting at me. Suspended *without* pay. That'll show them!

#CoHMA M2: Off to meet with Captain Livingston. I presume things won't go as planned.
#CoHMA M2: mission popup showed me that the contact's initials are WMD, also Livingston's first initials are AV...I've got a bad feeling...
#CoHMA M2: This time Longbow are friendly, though the Family aren't as much. Then again, the candy canes are doing good on their own.
#CoHMA M2: Livingston proudly displays AV in his name, though he's a lowly Lieutenant at the moment, and apologizes to me.
#CoHMA M2: And Arachnos arrive on the scene. The plot thickens... or maybe just congeals... nevermind.
#CoHMA M2: I keep reading Kobushi's name as Kobayashi.
#CoHMA M2: So, Livingston has some dirty cops under his care and he wants more time to smoke them out... what to do...

#CoHMA M3: WMD thinks AV's whole squad is corrupt, and I'm off to help a three office investigation of his most recently claimed evidence.
#CoHMA M3: So Longbow AV Livingston is dirty - smuggling pedestrian drugs to Rogue Isles, and Arachnos Kobushi is good spider drug cop guy.

#CoHMA M4: That was over sooner than expected. Went to Rogue Isles to find Livingston, found some data, some spiders, and a few longbow.

#CoHMA M5: Livingston's becoming a Ballista and getting protection from...dun Dun DUN... Malta.
#CoHMA M5: Malta is actually a custom Malta-lite group, with tactical officers a sapper-lite kin custom, a MM custom, and maybe more.

The architect edition came out when the mission architect came out to help advertise the Mission Architect.

Shoot, my first Friday back in a while, and this was one thing I was looking forward to.