MrCaptainMan

Well put, Silver.

Eco.

Re Venture (on iPhone, hence odd quoting method):

" [Must a painter find and grind their own pigments, weave their own canvas, or create the universe before they are "allowed" to create what they imagine?]

No, but if they're working for someone, or in an art class, or submitting work for a contest, or in any other situation wherein they are called upon to work within specified parameters, they work to those parameters or they fail."

i think the contest analogy you use is the best one for the AE. I would say that this pRticular contest has as many judges as there are Players, and so 'failing' it is, well, possibly even moot considering that different 'judges' have different success criteria.

Eco

I personally play in a wiondow, so technically there'd be no problem for me (at least on my current rig - if i ever get the new one running I don't know lol). A's alos have no problem whatsoever in terms of seeing it as part of the story, unlike some of the more purist 'Stay in your box, arc!' folk out there

However, as you can see, some folk have techincal trouble with viewing another window, and some people have psychological issues with any unusual storytelling methods.

It all depends on you, at the end of the day, and how 'common denominator' you want to go.

I have a quite long villain monologue in the final mission of The Echo, delivered in sections through an intercom system as the Player fights his way through the map, spread out over 18 (count em!) chained boss objectives, ending with the actual Villain encounter. The bosses are easy, but that's a long chain, and some people have complained about it. On the other hand, some people have raved about the monologue and it's paced delivery and build-up.

ou can't please everyone all the time, of course, and that's not a bad thing if we are to have such variety of arcs.

My own take is, for feedback, I'd rather get a few 'That was INCREDIBLE!' and put up with a few 'That was AWFUL!' than get a lot of 'That was ok'.

Eco.

Right now I kbow for a fact that XP works, so i'm just going to ask for that. I dont want to wait another month before playing CoH on my new system.

Eco

I built my rig, installed vista, installed my modem drivers and set up my internet connection, and then activated vista upgrade. 59 upgrades later it reported vista as completely up to date. I went to nvidia's site, and dled the vista 32bit drivers for my geforce 9600gt card. Thats the total 'stuff' ive done with the system. After that firat driver didnt recognise vista i spent ages trawling thru forums trying othet drivers etc. I'm not the only one who's had this problem but i can't find a solution.

Eco

edit i have vista 32 bit home basic.

I think i'll just take vista back and exchange it for xp. Ive been to the nvidia forums, they're no help, and after spending literally hours trying to look for solutions online, dling various drivers, uninstallung the old ones, etc, i feel i've done enough. Microsoft obviously dont have any confidence in vista either, with windows 7 coming out so soon.

I guess this is a lesson for me in the value of the adage 'if it isnt broken, dont fix it'.

Eco

I got a new rig! Yay!

Except i was idiot enough, it seems, to get Vista 32 bit for it. I hav a geforce 9600gt, and Ive been trying to install drivers for it for a day now. 'Setup has det3ected that the operating system is not Vista 32bit and has ceased its action' is the message i get. Im using Vista 32 bit. I've looked online and I can't find any help.

Does anyone have any advice?

Eco.

Also, why the hell isnt CoW a DC arc by now?

Eco

She's the best reviewer on the boards IMO. One thing, however: when i played CoW, i took it as read tgat the 'hospital' was a building origibally used for another purpose that had been turned into a field hospital - in fact the map itself is just a dressed up office map isnt it?

Eco

Does your arc have a title? Are the limericks-

Limericks? Rotating limericks?

...

Perhaps you could elaborate on the story a bit? There's a sort of standard form for arc info.

Name
arc ID
lvl range
keywords
length
description

this would give prospective reviewers more to go on. If its full of malta and KoA, for example, i probably wouldn't be keen.

Eco

Yes, I agree. It is a pain in the butt.

Eco.

Is there anyone in authority I can PM on the issue? Am I allowed to?

Eco.

This is all very well, but why should I have to be the one to do all the extra work? Its atrocious customer service. the awesome forums were opne of the reasons I got so sucked into this game, and now they're really pissing me off. Why so much of the new forums are so unintuitive I'll never know. The defaults should be set so that our lives are easier, not more ******* complicated.

EDIT - if they expect me to log out every time I'm done with the forum and then log back in again for no reason at all other than they cant do their job, well, I'm not going to lol. The other forums had no trouble remembering where i was in a thread, I don't see why these can't.

Eco.

Old Dog,, New Trick, Arc ID 81318, by @Wrong Bird. Long (3 Medium maps), heroic, lvl range is rather varied to be honest, might want to have a look at evening it out a bit (unless there’s a good reason). I’m going to take the Accelerated Man, my lvl 37 kin/rad Defender in.



The warning says there may be EBs in it, and the description informs that I’ll be helping out ‘Rex Magnus, the poster dog of the PPD’s K9 program’! Aw, a doggy in trouble! AM to the rescue!

“…Come in, come in, Gavin, how nice to see you! How was your holiday? Really? Good, good, I’m glad…oh she did? Well that’s splendid, isn’t it? …Oh, really? How annoying…you should have complained to the hotel management…and who was it, anyway? I mean, 3 am, that’s no time to be telephoning people on their holidays… Oh…well, ah…yes, sorry about that, Gavin, but it was an emergency…I couldn’t find my eyeballs…yes, I know they were in my head, but I had my eyes closed, so I panicked… Well I’m sure the rest of the time you had was wonderful, I hear that Belize is beautiful…ah, that…yes, well that was another emergency. How did I find you? Well you weren’t on the moon, Gavin! It wasn’t too difficult…where were you, anyway, that time? You did sound a bit out of breath… Oh, I see, on a yacht…with the GPS transponder switched off…and you told the hotel management you’d flown back to Paragon… Really, you actually booked out of the hotel and had your bags sent to the airport? Whatever would you want to do that for, if anyone wanted to contact you they’d have the devil of a time…ah, yes…well I guess it was lucky you didn’t pack your teeth, eh? haha…what? No, no, just my little joke…it was luck, I’m sure, that the drone found you… plucky little devil, flying all the way to Belize, eh?

“…Anyway, I’m glad you had a nice time. Sit down; I’ve got a lovely story to tell you. For once, I’ve actually done some good that didn’t involve horrible aliens or vomit-spewing zombies or whatnot. I helped a dog, Gavin! A brave little doggie! Rex Magnus, you know, the poster dog for Paragons Police dog unit. You’ve seen him on the TV. He’s great with children, and he’s a wonderful police dog too. Well, the poor little fellow got caught in an explosion, and he had to be rushed to the vet hospital. I know, it makes me well up just thinking about poor brave Rex, lying there, on his back, four little paws in the air, tongue lolling out, eyes making those little Xs like in the cartoons, whirly tweety birds rotating round his head…/sigh…

“Lt Macready of the PPD knew my brother, Science rest his soul, and he called me to ask if I could help. A doctor working for Crey had developed something that could help Rex. He’d given Macready the teleport transponder location of the Crey Base where he was stationed, but the rest of the Crey personnel wouldn’t be too happy to see me storming the place. But there was a daring little doggie’s life at stake! I had to help!

Mission 1: Find Genetic Treatment

“Well, this Doctor Cunningham was right. I was given a most unwelcome welcome by the Crey personnel at that base…Not a dog lover among the lot of them, I bet! I tried to reason with them, but sometimes, Gavin, the only diplomacy that works is an application of L = T – V, haha…



"In short, Gavin, I set about them with a will. After a few groups, I was positively festooned with excess kinetic energy…I felt like a bowling ball, Gavin! I was about to turn another Crey medic into a quivering bag of jelly when he threw his arms up and revealed that he was the Doctor I was looking for!

“He told me he’d show me where the serum was kept, and we continued through the base. He hung back mostly, whilst I dealt with any Crey who objected to my presence. He led me to a refrigeration unit, containing a lot of phials. Thank goodness he was there to show me which one I needed. After that, I thanked him and sped to the exit!

[Great fun. Sometimes, I just want a nice simple story with some mildly challenging whan-bam combat, and this is perfect for that]

“Lt Macready took the serum and rushed it to the hospital, and it was given to Rex…and it worked! His brain activity improved, and he started trying to communicate! A miracle! His poor little doggy body was still horrifically injured, however, and there was only one man who could perform the cybersurgery necessary to save him; Dr Eric Perone. Unfortunately, Macready told me, he’d been kidnapped by some Freakshow recently. Well, I wasn’t standing for that, Gaving! If Rex needed Dr Perone, then I needed to go see some Freaks!

Mission 2: Find Doctor Perone

“The old office block where the Freaks were keeping Dr Perone was dingy, dirty and smelly. And it was full of Freaks, too. They attacked me as soon as I entered, so I quickly decided that wasting time on discussion was fruitless. I set off into the depths of that horrible dive, confronting the metal-clad monsters on the way. It was most invigorating, I don’t mind saying…



“On an upper floor, I spied Dr Perone in a large room, being roughed up by some Freaks. Quite a lot of Freaks.



"They gave me a workout, certainly, but they weren’t too onerous, luckily. Dr Perone was grateful for my assistance in getting back to civilization!

[That was a nice little fightfest, I enjoyed that ]

“We rushed to the hospital so that Dr Perone could get to work on Rex at once. I paced anxiously up and down in the waiting room whilst a small poodle eyed me nervously. Macready was also pacing up and down, and biting his nails rather savagely, I’m afraid to say. He must have been even more worried than I was!

“After some hours, Perone returned, with wonderful news! The surgery had been a success! The Crey gene therapy had in fact mutated Rex somewhat, and with Perone’s
cybernetic implants, Rex was now more than just a dog. he was K10, paragon’s newest superhero! Macready, Perone and myself went to the diner next door for donuts and thickshakes to celebrate!

“After a few too many thickshakes, Macready had to go home to lie down. Perone and I managed another shake each, followed by a few shots of straight raspberry syrup, but then we called it a day…

“The next day, a press conference was scheduled for K10 to meet the Lord Mayor of Paragon and all the press, but alas, someone had kidnapped him from his hospital room! Luckily his cybernetics contained a location transponder. Macready, his stomach gurgling from a thickshake hangover, asked me to help. I of course accepted, and he instructed his techs to teleport me to the right location…

Mission 3: Find K10

“Once the teleport fuzzle had dissipated, I looked around. I appeared to be in an old Fifth Column base…strange…they’d not been seen for years…I started to explore…I was looking forward to meeting K10, I confess, Gavin. Macready had told me that the PPD psychics had been speed-teaching him English the night before, so I wondered what he’d have to say. I’d never talked to a dog before…well, of course I had, everyon’es talked to a dog, haven’t they, but I mean I’d never had an actual intelligible response, unless you count the time that my aunt Emilia’s pug sort of said ‘sausages’…

“After some caverns, I emerged into a large room. Various miscreants were gathered there, and there was Rex too! Or rather, the hero formerly known as Rex! K10, the cyberdog!



[lol K10 looks brilliant, I love him.]

“I set to the task of clearing a space for K10 to limber up. Once the room was cleared, K10 told me that the ringleader of these villains was one Junkyard Dog, and that we had to stop him. ‘Good dog,’, I said, patted him on the nose affectionately, and let him start to sniff out the boss…



“We fought our way through the base, following K10’s awesome nose. After a few scraps with the motley collection of villains that Junkyard Dog had gathered for who know what nefarious purpose, we spied the evil pooch himself! K10 was raring to be at him, so I boosted his metabolism, powered up my own systems, and we attacked!



[Sorry about the poor screenie, the phone rang during the fight and i was juggling stuff lol]

“That Junkyard Dog was a tough little doggie! While we were fighting him, he revealed why he’d kidnapped K10…it seemed that he’d been the recipient of the same serum that had boosted Rex, and he wasn’t happy that there was another super-powered dog in paragon. He seemed to have a bit of a complex about his level of intellect, to be honest, kept complaining that he wanted ‘Only Junkyard Dog be smartest dog in Paragon City!’ Actually, Gavin, I’d never say this to K10, but I don’t think Junkyard had much to worry about on that score. K10’s a lovely, er, person, but he’s never going to win any Nobel prizes…

“I actually felt a bit sorry for Junkyard at the end, he put up a fight, but with me and K10 against him, he didn’t really stand a chance. After we’d defeated him, I activated my emergency temporal shift, and teleported the three of us back to the PPD. It was the Pound for Junkyard, a well-deserved bowl of Tex Chunks for K10, and a job well done for me!”

[end]

Top banana. Great fun all round. The maps were just the right size, the villain groups are great for AM, I got a nice chunk of XP, and K10 is a wonderful creation. It’s a very simple arc mechanically, but its mix of fast paced easy-ish combat and light-hearted feelgood plot was just what the doctor ordered today. I love the title of the arc, too.

Negatives: 4 tiny typos, which I’ll PM you about, and I‘d like to have seen some clues for missions 2 and 3 as you did for mission 1. Junkyard Dog could especially do with a clue clarifying his reason for kidnapping Rex, for those who might miss the NPC text for some reason.

Suggestions: This is a bit radical, to be honest, so I’ll say first that as it stands the arc is fine. My suggestion stems from the briefing that mentions the press conference for the Mayor and the Press etc. That made me think of the Atlas Park Fashion Show map. If you wanted to expand the arc to 4 missions, you could have Junkyard escaping and crashing the press conference on that map. You could have some rescue objectives, then; rescue the mayor, the journalists, Macready even? Just a thought.

BTW, K10 is the kind of character I wish I could have as a temp pet power. I loved his look

The Souvenir was also great, it made me go 'awww...' witha big cheesy grin.

4 stars, well done.

Eco.

The last two days, I'm getting the bolded thread title indicating a new post, but the last post isn't actually new to me. It's annoying as hell. Compounding the annoyance is my lack of understanding of why this is happening now. It just seems totally arbitrary.

Eco.

They're still like wading thru molasses whilst competing in Slowy McSlows Slowest Snail in the World Competition on my iPhone, though.



Eco.

Upping the mix would be good imo but you'd have to alter the text of the arc to refer to 'wannabe supers' instead of villains. Add something about them all determined to fight to keep their trademarks and that'd be fine for me. Others may differ, but you cant please everyone.

Combining the two custom groups into one may give you more space to play with too. Perhaps you could put another boss encounter or two in so solo players can see them.

Eco