Eva Destruction

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  1. Eva Destruction

    NOT Sour Grapes

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Bubbawheat View Post
    Agreed on all points. As for myself, I'm sad, but I'm not bitter. When I get around to playing Sabrina's Tale, I will definitely be playing it with an extra critical eye. And I would very much like to hear the reasoning for why the devs chose what they chose over what they didn't. And hopefully it's not something along the lines of "these people are prominent in the forums, so they already have a lot going for them."
    Considering that two of the winners have Dev's Choice arcs, and you can't turn around in this forum without running into another "Blight" mention, I doubt it.
  2. Eva Destruction

    NOT Sour Grapes

    I'd settle for seeing the criteria used to decide the winners from among the nominees.
  3. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dalghryn View Post
    Did I miss something? Where was it that Police Woman was compared to Simon Cowell? I can see a couple of other reviewers earning that honor on occasion, but PW... No way!
    PoliceWoman's 3-star review of "The Most Important" thing was mentioned, and dismissed, because "arcs that are hated by some can be really loved by others."

    Personally, I think the author's reaction to the review is far more telling than the review itself, which I just read and happen to agree with.
  4. Quote:
    Originally Posted by airhead View Post
    This is a good point. I think it's because of the physical nature of the contest's prizes that the awards were limited to US residents and annexed Canadians. They're decent prizes too. I'd be happy with what I got if it was me.
    They may be decent prizes, but their existence locked a lot of people out of a chance at participating in the first MA promotion event ever.

    Do they really think we wouldn't have all jumped at the chance to enter this contest if there was no tangible prize?
  5. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Twoflower View Post
    There are a lot of ways to fine-tune your work based on response... without having to put up with self-important Simon Cowell clones.
    Anyone who compares PoliceWoman to Simon Cowell has obviously never even glanced at her review thread. She is possibly the most polite and helpful reviewer out there.
  6. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Geek_Boy View Post
    Or I guess I could try to be awesome like Blight, but since I have joked with Witch_Engine that our villain groups (created at roughly the same time and independent of each other) are virtually identical. Maybe I should have submitted for that category . . .
    Shouldn't be too hard to create a villain group that awesome. Just look at the sheer number of zombie arcs out there...nope, not too hard at all.
  7. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dalghryn View Post
    Ok... So... Instead of Lazon exploding, I'll have The Transluscent Girl angsting about death and the war just before she witnesses her dog being crushed beneath Hro'Dath's boot.

    Yes!

    Thank you, LJ and Eva! You're inspirations to us all!

    Wait!

    I'll have the dog crushed and then...

    Wait on it...

    Wait on it...

    Stuffed in a refrigerator!

    OMG!!!! That's IT!
    And then Lazon goes to the refrigerator to get his ham sandwich, and finds the dog and that his ham sandwich is gone! He explodes in a shower of sparkly angst.

    This triggers:

    [NPC Dialogue] Hro'Dath: Analysis: Canine: Squishy, slightly crunchy.
    [NPC Dialogue] Hro'Dath: Sandwich: Delicious.
  8. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dalghryn View Post
    Well, CoW has a teenaged superheroine whose entire supergroup is killed from around her and her world's being devastated by an alien invasion. Guess that doesn't qualify as being sucky enough, huh?
    Doesn't count, since the events of CoW suck equally for everyone.

    Now if the teenaged superheroine had expected you to take time out of your busy schedule of kicking Rikti butt to listen to her angst about her dead friends, then you might have something.
  9. Eva Destruction

    End Boss Escape

    I believe you still get the ticket bonus if a mission fails, and since there's no arc complete XP bonus in MA, it doesn't matter if you fail, from a mechanical perspective.
  10. I find it interesting that three of the five winning arcs contain teen or pre-teen girls whose lives suck. Maybe four, if you play "Blight" with a Buffy-like character to get the full impact of the arc. I haven't actually played the "best villainous" winner, so it could be all of them.

    I also find it interesting that out of all the girls whose lives suck, the pre-teen handles it best, and ends up as the most sympathetic character out of all of them.
  11. Eva Destruction

    End Boss Escape

    Unless the player is a /traps corruptor...or you have a team with a lot of immobs...or the player taunts a lot, which overrides the "run away" setting...

    The point is, if it's neccessary for the story that the villain escapes, you shouldn't rely on a boss set to run.
  12. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Witch_Engine View Post
    The fact he is basically making my play experience utterly miserable for something beyond my control is inconsequential to him at this point, as it's pretty apparenty that even if I took the arc down (actually, especially if I did given how high profile it is) people would still react to his seemingly unending slamming of it. And that's what he wants, the reaction. The arc could have been any arc, really.
    If he's making your play experience that miserable, click his name, go to his profile, click "User lists" and put him on ignore. Then go in-game and /gignore @Venture. There. Now you can enjoy the free publicity his slamming of your arc has given it and never again have to read another word he says about you.

    Although if he makes you that miserable, I have to wonder why you read his thread.
  13. Eva Destruction

    End Boss Escape

    There is absolutely no way to make 100% sure that your villain escapes. Making him a near-impossible to kill AV doesn't make him actually impossible to kill....and is immersion-breaking when the player finally faces down the defeatable version and pwns him.

    I suggest possibly planting some clues for the player to find before they face the villain, suggesting that he might be able to get away. Put them in the same mission, so that even though the player knows the villain has hacked into the city's mediport network or whatever, they can't do anything about it right now. That makes it less cheap when the player defeats the villain and later finds out he teleported to a secret base upon defeat.
  14. Eva Destruction

    What's up?

    Do you have two accounts? Were you attempting to edit an arc that you created with the first account and that uses unlockable content that you haven't unlocked with the second account?
  15. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Calash View Post
    Cals random Shadow Shard theory of the day.


    Rularuu eats dimentions. He has done so for eternity. The question we should ask is why.

    Why does he consume? Why were we the only world to stop him?
    Who says we were? We locked him up a few decades ago. That's a blip to him. Even the people involved in keeping him contained don't believe he'll stay that way forever. Who says he hasn't been locked up, escaped, and eaten the people who locked him up countless times in the past?
  16. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Haggard4Life View Post
    Quote:
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Venture
    a) It is extremely unlikely that a story that has the player fight (e.g.) Hellions, then Praetorians, then Vahzilok, is going to make any kind of real sense. There are few or no narrative connections between factions of wildly disparate level. Most of the time the reason for mixing and matching in this fashion is contrived.
    Contrived? That seems pretty unfair. There are a lot of creative people out there who might just make a good story out of such an idea.
    There are very few people out there who can make a good story out of such an idea. Statistical probability dictates that you are probably not one of them.

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    b) Players are generally of the point of view that levels matter, i.e. a character that has earned his way into content like the STF or RWZ arcs where he is fighting to literally save the world should not suddenly find himself in serious danger from street gangs. Plot devices intended to explain such again tend to be contrived.
    Why does that have to be the case in AE arcs? Not only is your character in a virtual non-canon story, but levels don't matter that much because you shift to the level of that mission. If an arc has an inconsistent level range, you're free to drop it if you want.
    So it doesn't matter that my level 50 is suddenly dropped down to level 20, because I'll still have all my powers and set bonuses I have at 50 right? Oh and you know that "canon related" tag? Yeah, just because it's a virtual world doesn't mean the "real" world rules don't always apply.

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    d) The arc is as hard as its hardest part. A consistent level range is honest about the arcs difficulty.
    Then the author can make sure any change in the level range is not too difficult for low level characters. Maybe they can make a custom version of Malta without Sappers or include an Ally in that mission.
    Higher level enemy damage, HP, resistances and secondary effects are balanced for characters of those levels. Council Empire are pretty wussy at 50...now try fighting them with a sidekicked level 10 and see how wussy they are.
    Quote:
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    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Eva Destruction
    "because you can do that" is not a good reason to do anything.
    I'm in full agreement that you shouldn't do something just because you can. But it's a tool we Architect writers have so why can't someone come up with a good way to use that tool in their story? I don't like the idea of limitations on our creativity.
    Someone did. It's called "Teen Phalanx Forever!" and it uses varying level ranges to mirror the ranges of the Freedom Phalanx task forces. If you can use varying level ranges as effectively, more power to you. Again, statistical probability says don't push your luck.

    There will always be limitations to your creativity when you're publishing something for public consumption. Of course you can just ignore them, but don't be surprised when nobody plays your arc, and those that do rate it poorly. If you want unlimited creativity, you can have as many local arcs as you want.
  17. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Geek_Boy View Post
    Since I find it offensive (I'm really hard to offend until it comes to sexist or anti-semitic imagery - haven't found anything anti-semitic, but I'm being totally open here), I'm kind of sickened to see that particular entry in there.

    Especially since even though the devs have said over and over that you can't have an EB in a mission without describing it in the mission accept text and said arc commits that sin, too.

    Or at least it did when I tried to play it and gave up in frustration and disgust.
    There was no room in the mission accept text for an EB warning, since it was maxed out making sure we knew just how upset the contact was at a woman being put in a fridge.
  18. I did none of those things, nor do I plan to in any of my planned arcs.

    I guess I'd better get on that rewrite of my Mega Mech arc, it sort of uses #2 and #6.
  19. What Lazarus said, what Venture said, and "because you can do that" is not a good reason to do anything.
  20. Also 9 of the 15 arcs are nominees in the Player Awards.
  21. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dr. Aeon View Post
    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.
    This.

    THIS.

    You should listen to Dr. Aeon guys. He assured me personally that Nutripaste is not made out of people.
  22. 9 out of the 15 arcs were authored by regulars in this forum.

    How's that for a statistic?

    Grats to the nominees.
  23. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Shadowclone View Post
    "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..."

    That was Dr. Aeon in a thread he made. Great now we have Dr. Aeon in the Shard...
    Everybody else gets to go. Why can't he? He can just nip back in time and buy tickets to that sold-out Johnny Sonata show before it gets sold out, and voila, he's in.
  24. A review by Coulomb2 here. Spoilers and stuff.

    The arc was also reviewed on AEntertainment Tonight, where MI Abrahms described it as showcasing the super-sidekick mechanic...which both mechanically and conceptually fits this arc very well, despite not existing when I published it.
  25. For best Serious arc:

    1st place - Tales of Croatoa: A Rose By Any Other Name #178774 @Silvers1
    2nd place - The Storyteller: Sabrina's Tale #1237 @Redbone1