Liquid

Oh, a Lightning Blast set, with big thick yellow/white bolts and KABOOM sounds that stun or knock back foes (much like the bolts from Lightning Storm), as opposed to the thin blue bolts and *bzzt* sounds we get from Electric Blast.

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A number of these sets sound like they be more suited for a 4-5 power pool in addition to the current APPs. The "laser rifle" of the OP might be a bit gimped if it's ST only for a full set, but if you only need 4 variations it could be easier.

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Who says it would be ST only? He said more ST focused than AR (which has 3 Cones, an AoE, and a placed AoE), not ST-only. The Robots one has an AoE in it, someone else mentioned a "Laser Full Auto" like the robots themselves have.

Also, keep the title in mind here. People are talking about things they'd like but realize are unlikely, so there's no reason to be arguing against any of them.

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Other than that, a new buff/debuff set that does not involve me clicking on my teammates one by one to rebuff them every few minutes would be so awesome it might never happen.


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This is why I freaking LOVE the VEATs.

Some of these are pie in the sky ridiculous, others are actually realistic:

Telekinesis -- I want to be able to lift and throw objects and foes like in The Force Unleashed.

"Real" Invulnerability -- I mean an all resistance/MaxHp version of the set without heals or Def.

Ditto the Super Speed attack set-- I especially want a large PBAoE that looks like a bunch of shadows of your character are running around with their fist out in front of him/her.

Martial Arts with the ability to choose whether each given attack animates as a punch or a kick.

Energy Blast version II -- the blasts would be solid, cylindrical, near-instantaneous beams, like Green Lantern or Dazzler, instead of looking like watery bursts and projectiles.

Energy Rifle/Pistol -- like above, but from a gun instead of your hands.

Dual Pistol Melee -- Shooting people at close range and pairing it with Super Reflexes, Regen, etc.

A "devices" control set-- Bolas, nets, wide-area web grenades, stun grenades, etc. for Controllers and Dominators.

Animals for MMs-- Tier 1: Wolves, Tier 2: Tigers, Tier 3: Grizzly Bear. Weapon powers would be a whip.

You asked for Feedback on "This is War, Part I - the Revenge of Hro'Dtohz". You asked for some specific feedback about the ending, but since I took notes when I was playing it, I figured I'd give you as much as I could.

Typos

In the mission return text on the first mission, "ignore" is misspelled, and in the same place on the third mission, "already" is misspelled.

Minor Constructive Criticism

There are at least two times that you say something like "you heard that correctly" or "that is correct", and then repeat the last sentence. I'd only use it once in a given arc, or it feels repetitive.

I know that Dra'gon is optional, but since he can make short work of Serpent Drummer, and he can spawn right in your path on the way out, I'd make Serpent Drummer not be an escort. Nothing is more frustrating than the stupid AI escort running in to its death and failing the mission for you.

Why no dialogue from the Riders? I can understand if you've reached max file size, but if not, I'd suggest adding some.

You may just consider this personal preference, but I'm not a fan of meta-game terms being used in-game. The clue about the "Brute" is something I'd change. I'd just call him a villain, or a tough villain, or something else instead of using a meta-game term.

Confusion

Cher'tak claims he is loyal to the Lineage of War when he's an ally of mine facing the Riders. Aren't they the bad guys that want to destroy Earth? What am I missing there?

One of the Rikti on your side twice displays an "unseen smirk". First, I don't think the Rikti have mouths, though that could just be me missing some other form of mouth since they can't open or move in CoH. Second, if it's unseen, how did I see it? If you're trying to imply a "tone of thought" to what he's saying, I'd describe it as such. I figured you meant to show his eagerness for battle, but I thought it might have been intended to tell the player (but not the character) that he was hiding something or was going to betray me.

Amusement

I loved the bit with the Malta guy carrying the explosives. Nice one.

Specific feedback about the end text

I don't remember the exact text anymore, but I'd say one of two things:

If the thing looks like a Nemesis Automaton, but you intend to have a surprise in a later mission that it's something else, then go with Nemesis Automaton. Don't have Lady Grey muse about it being something else.

OR

If Lady Grey really thinks it could be something else, then assume the character isn't sure either. Don't flat out call it a Nemesis Automaton, simply present that as a possibility. (Nemesis automatons are pretty distinct, so you'd have to imply it could be some new version)

As for the "I'm glad that's over" feeling, I'd have to read the text again to give you something constructive there, and I'd rather not have to run the whole thing again just to read it. Can you PM me the end text, please?

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2) A "submitted for dev's choice" flag. The author of this arc wants it to be considered for DC status and gives prior consent for it to be taken as is. The devs will only look at DCing arcs with this flag set.


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This is a great idea. This way they don't even have to take the time to contact the author when they find one they like, and though they will still get some garbage submitted, it should dramatically reduce the number the devs have to sort through since farmers obviously won't want a dev looking at their arcs!

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Win the Past, Own the Future
RATING: 3 star
Mission 1
Discover the identity of the escapee 6 key villains to defeat
Strenghts: good map! Love the zig. Freaks and dr vahs and malta wow nice multi use of villans. I knew dr vahs was a mm good power making.
Limits: maybe make clockwork queen? King been overused. Couldn’t find the last 2 key villans. Quit after first mission because of it. Might want to name them in nav

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The point of that mission is that existing villains who have been defeated and put in the Zig are breaking out, so a Clockwork Queen wouldn't make any sense. I originally used the actual AVs, but people kept complaining about it being too hard in Beta.

Naming them in the Nav would ruin the surprise of who is there, and, sadly, wouldn't help people find those last 1 or 2 villains. There are two problems with using that map: there's a boss spawn that they put on a catwalk that nobody ever checks, and there's an indoor portion when you click on the last set of sewer grates that lots of people don't know about and don't think to try. Also, (assuming they never fixed it) there's that 2-5% chance that an objective doesn't spawn at all due to a bug on certain maps. My options are basically to not use the map or hope people explore more. The arc doesn't work without the map.

At this point I'm debating just deleting it. It's really disappointing getting so little play and low ratings (from those who aren't teamed with me to help them find the spawns) when it does get played, after getting Dev's Choice for it in Beta.

Oh well. Thanks for playing my arcs, Cien!

Death for Dollars!

Arc ID: 1050
Difficulty Level: Low-Medium

Synopsis: The makers of arcade classics 'Destruction Cinema' and 'Absolute Mayhem' bring you the action-packed, gore-filled Virtual Reality show, 'Death for Dollars'!

Please do not review the "Extreme" version (1100). That one is obnoxious, and meant for a large, AoE centric team, or it won't be much fun at all. The stories are identical anyway (or will be, I've made some modifications to the solo one).

Also:

Win the Past, Own the Future
Arc ID: 1429
Faction: Multiple
Difficulty Level: Medium (custom bosses, an AV in the last mission, but there is an ally)

Synopsis: In the midst of a riot, someone has escaped from Ziggursky Penitentiary. Discover who it is, what his plans are, and find an unlikely ally in your quest to stop a plan that will otherwise leave the world in a terrifying state.

I'm not sure I'd recommend soloing this with a Controller, but then, I'd be interested in hearing how you fare in the final mission.

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I suppose I could stop trying so hard to use complete sentences.

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You think it would help to describe your mission in Rikti?

Classification: Nemesis Plot. Assistance: Required. Threat: Planetary; Political Control. Sentient Life Cessation Probability: 94.37%. Difficulty: Extreme. Archvillain: Detected.

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I will only use Rikti as mission contacts from this point forward.

It seems to be caching arcs, or reporting that arcs have been updated before they actually have.

As a workaround, I have been clicking edit, looking for my last set of changes, closing the editor if I don't see them, and then clicking edit again until I do see them before making more changes.

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Arc Name: Dr. Duplicate's Dastardly Dare
Arc ID: 1218
Faction: Custom
Difficulty Level: Low-Medium ("standard" custom critters, with a "Hard" Boss at the end)

Synopsis: Dr. Duplicate, a villain with a notoriously large ego, has taken over the Paragon Dance Party (people still go there?), and dared you to take it from him!

Estimated Time to Play: 10 minutes-- 1 mission.


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I've updated this mission. It should be easier and soloable for most builds now (probably not some defender builds), and I've added some more objectives to make it more fun.

I've got a feedback thread for it here.

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Re: 200+ years - I don't play every arc. Many arcs don't have a good description in the search window, which is my second criteria to see if I want to play it. First criteria being the title of course.


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Any plan to increase the size of the description? Even 500 characters instead of 300 would make a huge difference. Or maybe some additional settings to describe difficulty? I'm having a hard time writing an interesting description of the story of the mission, while also providing information about what they can expect from the gameplay/difficulty.

I suppose I could stop trying so hard to use complete sentences.

There are two problems with suggesting that people lower their difficulty when they run into EBs or Bosses.

First, difficulty varies wildly in this game. For some foes, you might need difficulty 4 or 5 for them to be a challenge. For others (like some custom EBs), you may have to be on 1 in order to have a shot at beating them.

The second problem is that switching difficulty when you find things too easy or too hard requires you to leave the mission, travel to the Hero Corps person/Fateweaver, pay inf (which, if you are frequently changing difficulty can get expensive), and then reset the mission, or whatever you ran into will be unaffected by your change in difficulty, because it has already been loaded. But you can't reset a mission while on a "TF". You have to quit and start all over, or log out for 5+ minutes. That's why nobody wants to do it.

Because of this, I've decided to minimize the difficulty as much as possible in my arcs, without totally crushing character concepts (I still have some work to do on Death for Dollars and Dr. Duplicate, but I've totally revamped Win the Past, Own the Future). I've never had "it was too easy" as feedback, but I've had several "it's too hard!" responses coupled with 1 star ratings, despite saying that it requires a team in the arc description, and orange "you might want to bring some friends" in the mission description.

So, if I want people to play my arcs, I've decided I should only use EBs and AVs when a character really, really should be powerful. Even then, I'm finding I can't use Extreme settings, because some powersets are crazy on that setting, and nobody likes to be two-shotted (or one-shotted if they're already missing 1 hitpoint) even if it is by one of the biggest bad-[censored] in the official game lore-- someone who unquestionably deserves to be an AV set to extreme.

Alas.

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Arc Name: Win the Past, Own the Future
Arc ID: 1429
Faction: Multiple
Difficulty Level: medium (one AV in the last mission, with an Ally to assist)

Synopsis: In the midst of a riot, someone has escaped from Ziggursky Penitentiary. Discover who it is, what his plans are, and find an unlikely ally in your quest to stop a plan that will otherwise leave the world in a terrifying state.

Estimated Time to Play: 30-45 minutes-- 3 Missions in total.

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After getting some poor ratings with zero feedback (it was at 3 stars for a couple of weeks, and the only feedback I'd received was positive), I decided to modify this arc to make it easier, and see if that helps. It now only has one AV/EB at the end, and has an ally to assist you. I changed the final map to make the encounters flow better, changed the second map so that it wouldn't be too repetitive, and reworded some of the text so it would be a little more clear.

I'd appreciate any feedback you can give on it, I have a feedback thread for it here.

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1. New tool: downsize unit, eg, create a custom Boss for mission #1 (as an enemy), but deliberately spawn him at lieutenant strength for mission #2 (as an ally) without having to burn another 6.5% of our memory designing a duplicate. Could also work like for missions like Snaptooth, who appears in different strengths.

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I think a more versatile solution that would accomplish nearly the same thing would be for the Mission Architect to use a single costume listing for custom critters with identical costumes, similar to how it does this for critters that appear in multiple places in an arc.

Welcome, EMpulse!

Ex Libris,

I'm happy for you for your new opportunity, but sad for us and CoH that you will be leaving. I really appreciated the effort you've put into the community, and I'll miss you at the next HeroCon -- it never occurred to me that you might not be at the next one.

Good luck, and thanks again,

Liquid

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Saul Rubenstiens Discount Task Force by Ascendent


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Ascendant: "No, with an 'A'. D-A-N-T."

And yes, that arc is Awesome with a big A.

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90% of all statistics are made up.

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This is true. However, Its hard not to think something is odd when your arc gets nothing but 4 and 5 star ratings all the way to the front page.

and then the next 3 ratings are 3's and a 0-2

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It's not insanity that causes this, however, but selfish rationalism that is a consequence of rewarding people for getting their arcs played and rated.

It's quite obvious really-- there are several rewards attached to getting people to play your arcs-- badges, tickets, and the possibility of HoF. What is one of the best ways to get people to play your arcs? Get on the front page. But getting lots of 5 star ratings isn't enough to do this, because there are pages upon pages of 5 star arcs. So, how do you get on the front page?

Get everyone else off of it.

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So, if you had 1,000 votes of 4-stars, and one 5-star, then you'd make HoF. So, consider 4-star votes as simply not counting. If it's a good arc, you should not be getting any 2s or 1s.


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When was the last time you PUGged? And the tank who never took any armors or attacks after level 6, instead opting for the stealth pool, and the teleport pool, and the flight pool, and the superspeed pool, blamed the defender who had healing aura on autofire for not following him into the knot of 30 purple Freak tanks?

Arcs are going to get 2s and 1s out of spite and misclicks and because the rater doesn't like the shade of blue you used for your custom mobs which are actually the stock Antimatter robots that he has never seen.

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This was better stated than my post.

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If it's a good arc, you should not be getting any 2s or 1s.

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"Good arc" is relative, and lots of arcs you and I consider to be good will be getting 2s and 1s for reasons both you and I will find ridiculous. I had a mission 1 starred 2 minutes after posting it, they didn't have time to fight more than a few spawns assuming they clicked my arc the instant it was posted. A friend of mine just got downvoted for having two glowies spawn on top of each other, as if that was something they had control over.

Lots of people vote the minimum on ranking systems like these for stupid or vindictive reasons, and some people only vote with 1 or 5-- 1 starring anything they don't like for any reason. A lot of people don't like EBs at all, and some will 1 star you for having one because they believe any mission should be soloable by average builds on Unyielding, and they don't care if you say it's meant for a team. Hell, some people will downvote you for having a Boss "too early in the mission". Some people have said on the boards that if they are presented with "a ton of text", they will 1 star the mission. I don't know about you, but for me, a "good arc" requires plenty of text.

And don't forget that there are badges attached to getting people to play your arc, so it's actually in your best interest (if you care about your badges more than your integrity) to downvote other people's arcs until you show up on earlier pages.

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3. Make Hall of Fame, which requires a 4.5+ rating overall and 1000+ votes.


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I heard in beta from someone (I think Zombie Man) that HoF was changed to some large number of 4 or 5 star votes-- that it ignores anything else. Can anyone confirm that?

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Probably someone inadvertantly hit the "report this arc" button.

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That button looks WAY too much like a "Cancel" button, which people might hit if they don't want to submit a comment, or want to close the screen if they hit the button in the nav bar in the middle of an arc.

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AE System
--------
Welcome to Architect Entertainment -- Neutral
Death for Dollars! -- Neutral
*

Character/Supergroup Origins
--------
Birth of a Fossil -- Heroic
*

Classic Super-Hero/Super-Villain
--------
*

Comedy
--------
The Extadine Lab -- Heroic
The Great Chicken Caper of '09 -- Heroic
ParaCon -- Heroic
The new and improved Lord Recluse Strike Force -- Villainous (though I wouldn't recommend against a hero )


*

Comedy/Drama
--------
A Super Team is Born -- Heroic
Attack of the Space Clowns (18749) -- Neutral
Cause of How Some Silly Stealed My Wings -- Neutral
Lawyers of Ghastly Horror -- Heroic
How to Survive a Robot Uprising -- Heroic
Dr. Duplicate's Dastardly Dare -- Neutral
*

Crime/Gangs
--------
The Bravuran Jobs -- Villainous (16809)
*

Drama
--------
*

Global Domination
--------
Axis and Allies -- Villainous (10597)
*

Heist
--------
Celebrity Kidnapping -- Villainous (20161)
*

Historical (Realistic)
--------
*

Historical (CoH Lore)
--------
*

Holiday
--------
*

Horror
--------
Small Fears -- Heroic
Dark Dreams -- Heroic (18914)
*

Large-Scale Crisis
--------
A Hero's Halo -- Heroic
This Is War, Part I - the Revenge of Hro'Dtohz -- Neutral
Win the Past, Own the Future - Heroic
*

Magic
--------
The Amulet of J'gara -- Heroic
Chains of Blood (5492) -- Heroic
*

Military
--------
Redoubt Operations #1: Fires over Kalago -- Heroic
*

Misc. Adventure
--------
The Portal Bandits -- Heroic
*

Mystery
--------
Blowback (18575) -- Heroic
Dream Paper -- Heroic (13030)
Dream Paper 2: Restless Sleep -- Heroic (16797)
Dream Paper 3: Broken Dreams -- Heroic (13064)
*

Mythology
--------
Anactoria's Descent Into the Underworld -- Villainous
The War of Fate: Betrayal (19698) -- Neutral
*

Nemesis Plots
--------
Brass Reaver: Part 1 -- Neutral
*

Player-Chosen Outcome
--------
Hunting the Dark Dragon
*

Sci-Fi
--------
Adventures of the Space Marines -- Neutral
Adventures of the Space Marines 2 -- Neutral
Netrunner -- Heroic (14434)
Above Mars: Part 1 - The Wellington -- Neutral
*

Un-themed Survival/AV/Time Challenges
--------
The Meatgrinder -- Neutral
*


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Here are my missions, with their live mission IDs:

Arc Name: Legacy of a Rogue
Arc ID: 459586
Level Range: 30-35
Faction: Circle of Thorns, Custom
Difficulty Level: Medium, should be soloable by most builds that can handle Elite Bosses. There is a tough EB at the end, but you will have allies to help if needed.

Synopsis: A retired hero has asked you to take a young man as your sidekick, and help him follow in his legendary father's footsteps.

Estimated Time to Play: 30-45 minutes (5 missions, 2 small, 2 medium, 1 large)

Feedback Link for Legacy of a Rogue

----------------------------------------------------

Arc Name: Death for Dollars!
Arc ID: 1050
Faction: Custom
Difficulty Level: Low-Medium

Synopsis: The makers of arcade classics 'Destruction Cinema' and 'Absolute Mayhem' bring you the action-packed, gore-filled Virtual Reality show, 'Death for Dollars'!

Estimated Time to Play: 20-30 minutes (3 medium sized missions)

Feedback Link for Death for Dollars

----------------------------------------------------

Arc Name: Dr. Duplicate's Dastardly Dare
Arc ID: 1218
Faction: Custom
Difficulty Level: Medium ("standard" custom critters, with a "Hard" Elite Boss at the end-- play on heroic if you want him to be toned down to a Boss)

Synopsis: Dr. Duplicate, a villain with a notoriously large ego, has taken over the Paragon Dance Party (people still go there?), and dared you to take it from him!

Estimated Time to Play: 10 minutes-- 1 mission.

Feedback Link for Dr. Duplicate's Dastardly Dare

----------------------------------------------------

Arc Name: Win the Past, Own the Future
Arc ID: 1429
Faction: Multiple
Difficulty Level: High (several AV/EBs, ending with custom ones in the last mission. This is meant for a team.)

Synopsis: In the midst of a riot, someone has escaped from Ziggursky Penitentiary. Discover who it is, what his plans are, and find an unlikely ally in your quest to stop a plan that will otherwise leave the world in a terrifying state.

Estimated Time to Play: 30-45 minutes-- 3 Missions in total.

Feedback Link for Win the Past, Own the Future)