Dr. Aeon

Just to clarify, it has to be written that the character is a known hero or villain. Meaning that you could use Recluse, Mako, Statesman, etc. or you can use a character of your own creation, so long as their background is that they're a known hero or villain.

Hello everyone!

Sigh...you know, sometimes it's tough being the creator of so many great products, living the good life in the high tower with all these responsibilities. So many things to juggle...remember when it was easier? When you were still new and didn't have so many things to take care of? Back when you could...could just be yourself? I'm not crying! Ahem...I'm just...aha! Coming up with an idea for the next challenge! That's it...I know EXACTLY what it'll be! I challenge you all to write an arc for levels 5 to 10 with a story about a known hero or villain who loses their powers.


When you feel that you've made an arc that has the chops to meet these guidelines, send an e-mail to AECommunityContest@ncsoft.com with the following in the subject line: @Global Name - Arc ID - Arc Name. Submissions for the arc can start NOW and will end on Wednesday, February 24th, 11:59 AM PST. You can only submit your own arcs. No submitting for shy people!


Winners will be announced on or around March 3rd 2010 on the Official City of Heroes Message Forums.


The grand prize winner will receive a permanent title on a character of their choice.

I feel like we've gotten to know each other really well over the past few months. So you know what, here's a tip, something for you all to keep in mind when you're trying to meet my high expectations.


An arc that meets these criteria is just the first step towards winning. Throwing in a surprise that you don't often see in levels 5-10 will help you stand out more in this challenge. I want to enjoy the times that have passed!
So, what are you waiting for? The contest starts now! Good luck!

-Dr. Aeon

To view the Official Rules and Conditions please visit here

Hey everyone!

I wanted to let the people from Liberty and Freedom know that I had a blast playing through the Guest Author arcs with them!

Here is screenshot of my team from Freedom, whom I've dubbed ULTRA DREAM TEAM AEON (UDTA). Sorry Virtue, but all of the people on this team promised to help me fight against Television on the forums.



However! The people from Liberty have earned the name SUPER ULTRA DREAM TEAM AEON (SUDTA) for not only promising to help me fight against Television on the forums, but for also insulting Television at every possible turn during our story arc. Here is a picture of the SUDTA from Liberty!



Thanks again to everyone who participated, and remember!

Keep fighting Television!

I had an excellent time recruiting villains and worthy heroes last night for DREAM TEAM AEON (The DTA).

Here is a picture of us conquering the finale of Troy HickMan's arc:



I hope the people on Freedom are ready tonight, Virtue's DTA set my expectations very high!

It was a blast to work with Troy, Mercedes, and Austin on these arcs! If anyone finds any errors within them, please send me a PM and I'll look into whatever problems crop up.

Hello everyone!

I wanted to take this opportunity to wish everyone happy holidays. I myself will be migrating back to my "homeland" for the holidays and won't be back until the new year.

I also wanted to give thanks to everyone here in the community for both all the work that you've put into your arcs and also for all the other work that has been done in general for Mission Architect, whether it's in the form of feedback threads, player contests, awards, and also challenging each other. When I came on board this year in August, one of my goals was to do everything I could to help out the Architect community, which as many of you know I was a part of beforehand. I hope that I've been able to help you all out in these past few months and that I can continue to give you guys the best experience possible in Architect moving forward into next year.

At any rate, I hope all of you reading this have a happy holiday and new year; I'm looking forward to all of the fun things that are planned for Architect in 2010!

Hello Architects!

I'm proud to announce the winner of the first Dr. Aeon's Challenge!

The winner is...

Hello Architects!

Today, as some of you may know, is the last day to submit for the challenge I have set up. It feels like it was only a month ago that I first posted about this challenge! Hrm..wait a second...

I've seen how much work you've all been putting into these arcs and I'm looking forward to seeing just what exactly everyone has come up with!

The reason why this challenge was started in the first place was to give a glimpse into how it can be to write and design a story professionally for a videogame studio - some times you are given that creative freedom of, "Do whatever you want!" but many times you're given a scenario of, "We need a story done about X with Y limitations and we need it done by the end of this month."

I'm hoping that everyone involved continues to keep the arcs they've made published, regardless of whether or not you win the contest. From what I've seen so far, all of you have taken the idea and made this into a unique story of your own!

Now, if you all will excuse me, I've told my secretary to direct all incoming heroes and villains to Dr. Creed in Mercy Island for the time being while I continue to play through all of your arcs!

Hello everyone!

My random number generator has chosen Delusional Illusions by BigMoneyHustla.

Before starting, I'd like to refer to the first feedback post I made, as a lot of what was said there can be applied to this arc as well:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...08#post2345408

There are four major points of feedback I'd like to give regarding the arc. As with the last one, the feedback is going to remain general so that it can be something that everyone can apply to their own arcs.


1) Text Color and You

Starting off, one thing that was very noticeable in this arc was the attention given to making the dialog look fresh. Almost each bit of text had some sort of color to it, all put in the appropriate places so that the color wasn't "just there" for show. This made the story of the arc easier to read and digest, while avoiding the "wall of text" syndrome.


2) Contact Dialog and Tone

One thing that can be problematic is the dialog you have for your contact. Many times it can feel that the contact is talking at your character and not with your character - an example here being the difference between a teacher giving a student a homework assignment and two researchers trying to figure out a problem. The former is a person telling someone else what to do; the latter are two people figuring out a problem together.

This can be difficult to pull off, given that it's easy to fall into the trap of the contact talking at your character. One way you can pull this off is through the "Accept" dialog option in Architect. Putting in something that a character would say can help give the illusion that you're actually in a conversation - even if you're only saying one line, technically.

Here's an example of a before and after with specific dialog in BigMoneyHustla's mission:

Before
"The Messenger's message was very vague. Carnies have some psychic powers, and their Illusionists love messing with people's heads. They also happen to be having a dance party. A dance party you happen to have an invitation to. Go check it out.

Accept Option: Go Dancing!

The dance party is being hosted by the Master Illusionist Ruby. This is going to be a tough fight, I suggest taking some inspirations along. Hopefully, we can get some answers from Ruby."

After

"What the Messenger told you was very vague...now we all know that Carnies have some psychic powers - nothing like mine, of course - and they do enjoy messing with people's heads...

I think our best option would be to find some of these Carnies to figure out what exactly is going on.

Accept Option: Can you get me any information on this dance party?

Right, the invitation you received. Give me one moment...I can easily break through the Carnie mental barrier...

Aha! There we go. It looks like the dance party is being hosted by someone named Ruby. She'll be the person you'll want to go after to get some answers.

Good luck $name, I'll stay here to try to ward off more Carnies from going to that party."

As we can see, the after option feels more like Sister Psyche and the character are solving the problem together. Another thing it does is add to the tone of the contact, which is a crucial aspect to story telling. You can have it feel like you're having a back and forth conversation with your contact, but if that contact's dialog feels generic, it'll make the mission feel generic.

In this example here, we added some side comments regarding how Sister Psyche might feel about the Carnies. It may not give the player any hints towards what's going on in the mission, but it adds flavor to the contact to make them come alive. You'll also want to avoid having your contact refer to you as your archetype or mention inspirations - these sorts of things can ruin the immersion a player might have while playing the story, as it reminds them, "By the way, this is all just an imaginary story in a game."


3) Designing Outdoor Missions

Outdoor missions in our game can be difficult to design - walking into a large one with just one goal on it will lead to most players letting out groans of frustration. Given how the system works, there isn't a way that you the designer can designate where the objective will spawn as you can in an indoor mission.

In order to avoid giving the player the feel that they're hunting through the map, you'll want to try to bring your outdoor map to life, so that the player has the feeling that there are things going on while they're looking for this objective. These are great places to put in side objectives that give more clues to what's going on with the story - killing one group to find a clue would give the player incentive to actually fight their way through the mission until they find what they're looking for, instead of just running around waiting to see either the appropriate dialog box or the sound of a glowie.

Most of all with outdoor missions, try to avoid multiple objectives that trigger off of each other in larger maps. Certain outdoor maps, like in Croatoa, can be fine as they're not too big, so there isn't a lot of backtracking going on. But in the city ruined map, for example, if the player has hunted down the objective only to find another one pop up, it can be enough to drive them crazy.


4) Proofread Your Arc!

One of the biggest things that can bring an arc's quality down is grammar. You can have an arc that has brilliant design, something that will blow people's minds away, but if the grammar in that arc is littered with mistakes, it'll cause the entire arc to collapse on itself. It's always good to give yourself a day or two away from the arc when you're done with it. Let it sit for a while before you proofread it, or else you run the risk of your mind inserting what should be there since it's still fresh in your mind.

Once a few days have passed, read the content of your arc out loud to yourself. It's important that you say everything out loud, as the mind can place in missing words without you even noticing it. You'll also be able to see if any of your sentences are clunky and need smoothing out.

After all of this, it always helps to have another pair of eyes look over your arc. This can be done in the form of feedback from other players. All of this combined can help you really perfect the grammar in your arc.

I hope this feedback for the arc can be helpful to everyone who reads this. As I've said in the past, this feedback isn't meant to give the arc a rating, but to point out parts of the arc that can be improved upon to help it be the best arc possible.

Until next time, Architects!

Ah...do you all hear that? It's the holidays, one of my favorite times of year. I always make it a habit to get those that are near and dear to me a special little present. Why, last year, I bought Marshal Brass a nice gift basket, though he refused to take anything from it. I was insulted, but I took it like the gentleman that I am.

I figured I would give a gift to one of you all! And that would be the gift of my feedback! Aren't I generous and not self-centered?

Feeling nostalgic? You should! We did this earlier before. Here's how it works for anyone who might not remember...

Starting...NOW...until 5pm PST time, you can post one of your own arcs that you would like me to play. Please do not post arcs that you intend to submit for Dr. Aeon's Challenge. After 5pm, I will assign each arc a number and then put it through Aeon Corps' patented Random Number Generator (the new guy thanks all of you for the compliments on his machine) to choose one arc to play. I'll then play that arc and my feedback on it will be posted on a later date. I would give you all a specific date, but I have a ton of shopping to do for the holidays and I really need to get it done before the crowds start rushing in. This year I'll finally get something good so Marshal Brass is finally off my back.

So, what are you waiting for? The lines are already starting to pile up! Post your arcs and then I'll make a list! I'll check it twice!

Then I'll run it through a number generator to see what arc I'll play.

And don't forget about the Architect Challenge! The deadline is next Wednesday!

Hello Architects!

I just wanted to remind you all that the deadline of December 9th is approaching for the challenge! So if you're working on an arc, keep in mind that time is ticking!

I'd like to start my response by thanking everyone for all their great questions! I'm sorry that I won't be able to answer them all.

Here are five questions however that I am able to answer. I hope it sheds some light on things for everyone.

1. Can X villain group have their levels expanded?

I spoke to Castle about this when I first came onboard. There are multiple issues with doing this. One example is that these critters were designed specifically to be used in that level range - putting them outside of it can cause any number of problems, whether it's balance problems, issues with the powers, even possible issues with the mission they're supposed to show up in. If we were going to broaden the level range of a group, we would want to include more powerful enemies instead of just the current ones at a different level - a good example would be what we've done with the Circle of Thorns. I would say if you wanted to expand the group, you could try creating custom characters similar to that group - one of the Dev Choices did an excellent job doing that with the Legacy Chain.


2. Can we have more control over spawn placement?

I'll take this question as a chance to explain a bit about the spawn system in MA. Each Architect map had its spawns changed to be generic, so that no matter what map you use or what enemy group you use, you'll know that they'll show up regardless of the map you're using.

On our end regarding specific placement, that's something where the mission designers request the world designers to set the specific location on the map where they want that a specific spawn. Allowing Architect to do this would be difficult for several reasons. The first is that we'd have to come up with a map editing program to allow players to get into the map to move the spawns around to where they want it. Another concern on our end would be exploitation, where players could place specific spawns on a specific map to pose the least amount of challenge - spawns where the enemies are trapped in a part of the map, etc.

We have a few ideas on our end on how to make this work, but it would require a large amount of tech and time to do.


3. Can we have our own map editor?

The creation of a map editor would require work on a scale greater than Mission Architect, so I'm going to go ahead and say that this will not happen. There are a lot of complications that would go into this - are the maps stored like bases? How would spawns work? How long would it take players to download the maps that are created? How big would we allow maps to be? These are just some of the initial questions that pop into my head, all of which don't have an easy answer - all of it would involve a major amount of work to get this in for Architect.


4. Who is in charge of putting new maps into Architect?

The responsibility of putting maps into Architect falls mainly on my shoulders. War Witch and one of our other world designers helped a great deal in showing me how it is done, and the result of that can already be seen in Architect with the five new maps that were released some time ago - Johnny's Hell, Crey Hero Lab, Baron Zoria's Lair, Tyrant's Lair and Demon-Infested Tech. The process for maps to be translated to Architect can vary from map to map. For example, with Johnny's Hell, all the spawns on the map - regular spawns, boss spawns, hostage spawns etc., had to be removed and the spawns for the map placed back in from the ground up to be used in Architect. This is because the spawns were very specific for that map. Luckily Johnny's Hell is a small map, so it wasn't too big of a deal, but when we get to bigger maps, it can take a longer time.


5. Can we have the option on escorts to lead them to a place other than the mission exit?

Yes, this is something that we are definitely going to be putting into Architect in the future, though I can't comment on when this will be happening.

I hope you've all enjoyed this nice fireside chat with me. Now I'm going to have to excuse myself, I believe another hero is trying to throw around conspiracy theories about my Architect system - I'll need to squash the hero - er, calm the situation, quickly before it gets out of hand.

Hello Architects! Your benevolent caretaker Dr. Aeon is here. Today, I thought we'd take a little break, maybe have a nice chat by the fireside.

For this is...

Dr. Aeon's Fireside Chat

Come on by, sit down. Comfy? Good, that's an Aeon Corp couch you're sitting on, made from the newest materials that are tested to be extremely comfortable.

Ah...we've come so far, haven't we? But let's not get into the nostalgia now. Let's focus.

We'll use this time together, you and I...and you, and the other person there...and that guy behind you...as a time to sit back and answer some questions.

Post your questions about Architect until 5pm PST and at the end of the day, I will choose up to 5 of them to answer. I will then post my answers at a later date.

Please keep in mind that I won't be able to answer any questions regarding what we have planned for Going Rogue, though I can happily answer questions about techniques in Architect, different forms of narrative, etc. Just keep in mind that I'll have to remain silent about anything related to Going Rogue!

Go ahead and posts your questions! For the sake of simplicity, please only put one question per post. I'm still only human for the moment, you know!
And in the meantime, enjoy the Aeon Corp couch you're sitting on while you come up with some good questions!

Hello everyone!

Dr. Ego, er, Aeon here. That's weird, I almost said Egon, but that guy is long dead. Ha ha...ha.

Ahem. So today I was ruffling through some papers my secretary sent me, and it dawned on me - I'm not challenging you people enough!

So I'm here today to announce to you Dr. Aeon's Architect Challenge!

This contest is going to be a little...different from the Architect Awards. This is me challenging your Architect design skills!

So...what should the first challenge be...hrm...I know! We'll start with something simple.

Write an arc where a hero must do evil for the "greater good". Really, villains have to do good for the greater good, it's about time heroes pitch in their fair share!

When you feel that you've made an arc that has the chops to meet these guidelines, send an e-mail to AECommunityContest@ncsoft.com with the following in the subject line:

@Global Name - Arc ID - Arc Name

Submissions for the arc can start NOW and will end on Wednesday, December 9th, 11:59 AM PST. You can only submit your own arcs. No submitting for shy people!

This contest is open to our American and European players, where eligible.

Winners will be announced on Wednesday December 16th.

The grand prize winner will receive a permanent title on a character of their choice among other possible prizes brought to you by Aeon Corp.

Hrm...I'm feeling a bit generous, so here's a tip.

An arc that meets these criteria will just get your foot in the door. Working within these limitations to make an arc with a great story or surprising mechanics will go a long way towards getting you that grand prize.

So, what are you waiting for? The contest starts now! Good luck!

Terms and conditions for the challenge can be found here:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?p=2396732

Congratulations to all the winners of the Player Choice Awards and, as many others have mentioned, a very big hand to Bubbawheat for organizing this!

Hello everyone!

My number generator worked perfectly (despite some attempts by others here on the forum to sabotage it) and the resulting arc that appeared was...

Knives Reforged by @PennyPA

I'm going to keep the feedback on this arc to a general overview, but I want to start out by saying this feedback isn't just for @PennyPA - this can be helpful for everyone who has posted here on this thread. Designing and writing a good story is by no means easy and most importantly it is always a learning process. There's always something new you can learn about how to improve your storytelling - I include myself in here too!

I'll be breaking this up into two categories - mission design and story design.

Mission Design

1) One thing to always remember is to put in the background for your contact - this doesn't happen automatically. To spruce it up, try to add some bold or italics to the text, like having their name, Arbiter Daos in bold letters followed by the text of their description beneath them. That way when you go to, "Ask about contact" you can give the players some information that also isn't a wall of white text.

2) In that same line, dressing up your mission dialogue can go a long way in increasing the presentation to the player. Adding in a red highlight when you introduce a major enemy group helps, along with highlighting the title of your mission in a different color. You'll also want to avoid paragraphs that are too large - try to keep it to 4 or 5 sentences together at the most to develop a sense of pacing when reading. Putting in colors also helps break up some monotony of a wall of white text.

3) Within the mission itself, try to add more optional goals to make it seem more alive. For example, in PennyPA's arc, the first mission has the villains attacking a Vanguard base. To make it come alive, you can add a patrol in the beginning speaking about various things, or destructible computers scattered around for your villain to destroy. This also helps make the mission feel more "villainous".

If you also add clues to optional objectives when they're scattered around, you'll give players even more incentive to go out of their way to destroy them. This can be an opportunity to give more information about your story to those who might be interested.

When introducing an escort objective, have encounters appear (patrols, etc.) while leading them out. This avoids a potential lull in the story when you're just retracing your steps back out of the mission.

4) Always give some sort of warning to the players that they will be fighting an elite boss in a mission. This ties back in with the second point that was made. You don't necessarily have to spell it out as, "You will fight an elite boss here" as much as you can highlight in red text something like, "The most powerful member of the Knives' cell will be located there."

5) Enemy design. One thing you want to do when creating a custom group is to have your group have a "synergy" with each other. In PennyPA's arc, I like the concept behind the custom group, however having each of them be either Claws/Ninjitsu or Dual Blades/Ninjitsu can lessen the uniqueness of each rank - a lieutenant will be attacking you the same way a minion does, just with more powerful attacks.

There is no one "good" way to create a custom group. But there are some good suggestions. One is to try to keep each enemy unique. You've got a minion who is Claws/Ninjitsu? Check that combination off as done in the group. Especially in this case with ninjitsu, you'll want to limit it to, at most, one enemy in the group, given the powerful critical hit from hide.

From there, it's a matter of balance and making the group work. One possible way is to have your minion ranks be the "attackers" and your lieutenants be buffers/debuffers/healers. Or even the other way around. There's a lot that can be experimented with to make the group interesting and stand out from a gameplay perspective so that they're fun to fight - just be careful on that slippery slope of making them impossible.

6) Try to always set a consistent level range for your arc. If we're dealing with Knives and Malta, I'd say set all your mission parameters to be 40-54. It might seem minor but it goes a long way towards presenting an organized arc and focusing your audience.

Story Design

1) If you include a reference in your story, try to provide an explanation to it. In PennyPA's arc, we have a reference to events that happened in a story given by Arbiter Daos. It would be helpful if the first beginning clue was a quick summary that of the arc, where your villain destroyed a cell of the Knives within Grandville, just to clear out any unclear parts of the story.

2) An inherent issue with villainous missions is creating a motive for a villain to participate in it that still keeps them villainous. A hero story doesn't have this problem, as it's generally accepted that you do want to save the day/person/city/world etc. Many times this issue is skirted over by having the contact offer to pay your villain money for their time - but does that make them a villain or just an amoral mercenary?

One interesting idea which I've seen done in a few arcs is having your villain accept the payment and then betray the contact in the end. In this story arc, it would feel villainous if you found the weapons that Daos wants you to retrieve and had the story move forward that your villain decided to keep it for themselves. It then adds an interesting final conflict of your villain versus Arbiter Daos and ups the character from an Arachnos mercenary to an actual villain.

3) Always try to explain yourself in a story. If you have, "This Knife of Artemis doesn't seem like the many others you defeated before", explain why she doesn't. It doesn't have to be a long explanation, just a short one.

In that same line, when putting in background for your custom enemies, try to put in about 4 or 5 lines of a description. Shorter than that risks the group's description seeming too abrupt - longer than that and you're starting to weave a large tale about enemies that you'll be mowing down left and right. This is just a general guideline, not a hardcore rule, so if you honestly can't think of more than a few lines for a description, just leave it at that.

4) When writing a story, always try to ask yourself, "Why?" for events involved to help make it solid. An example here is Arbiter Daos. Why does he want to stop the Knives? To serve Arachnos? Why does he want to serve Arachnos? To keep the organization together and powerful? Why does he want that? You can see now we're getting into territory that can help make the dialogue in his arc come to life and be more personal.

As well, you want to try to look over the groups you use in an arc and go, "What would they be doing next?" For example, we have in this story that your villain bursts into a Vanguard base to kidnap a prisoner. What would Vanguard do next? You also then have your villain attack Malta. What would Malta do next?

If we included in this story your villain betraying Arbiter Daos, there could be an interesting 5th mission where it's a no holds bar fight against all the groups your villain has angered - Vanguard, Malta, and Arachnos. Perhaps there would even be unlikely assistance from the Knives for inadvertently keeping their organization together.

By keeping the questions of, "Why?" and "What would they do next?" at the forefront when you write a story, you can help deepen it and give the story a point or purpose - avoiding the danger that your arc is just a series of random events that happened that have no impact on anyone involved.


I hope this feedback helps out both @PennyPA and everyone else with their own arcs. As I said before, creating missions and a good story is a constant learning process; there's always something new for everyone to learn, whether it's a new way to present a story in game or a new way to design something.

Now if you'll all excuse me, I think I need to go deal with someone trying to sue me for losing their arm in Architect.

Hello everyone!

Dr. Aeon here, fresh off of handling some interference from some superhe - err, I mean, some annoying tax collectors. With superpowers. And capes.

Anyway! I'm here today to copy what many of the people on the forum here are already doing. Which is giving feedback on arcs within Mission Architect. However I have a lot on my plate today, including examining a cavern full of lava for its potential uses in the future and a trip into the Shadow Shard. Crazy place that Shard is alright, reminds me a bit of an old movie at one point...

Sorry, tangent. The point being, I'll only be able to play and give feedback on one arc.

So, what arc will be chosen to play? Here's how we'll do it.

Starting...NOW...until 5pm PST time, you can post one of your own arcs that you would like me to play. After 5pm, I will assign each arc a number and then put it through Aeon Corps' patented Random Number Generator (a new guy made it, bless his heart) to choose one arc to play. I'll then play that arc and my feedback on it will be posted on a later date. I would give you all a specific date, but you wouldn't believe how difficult it is for these Arachnos goons to stop random super-powered villains from kidnapping me, all to write some stupid paper for the Television.

My feedback will mainly be me doing everything I can to help you make the arc as solid as possible. I want to point out that just because I've played the arc doesn't guarantee that it will be a dev choice in the future. I will be doing what I can to give whoever is chosen feedback on what they can do to make their arc as good as it can be.

So start posting your arcs! Time is ticking!