Night_Fyre

[ QUOTE ]
Hi authors! I just (finally!) finished my first arc and would long to get some feedback on it. Here's the info:

Story name: Another Brick in the War Wall
Arc ID: 134781
Length: long (3 missions)
Morality: Heroic
Mission 1: Unique map, level range 46-52. Contains boss, collection, patrol
Mission 2: Large size map, range 1-54. Contains A Destructible Object, Patrol, Escort.
Mission 3: Unique map, level range 40-54. Contains Ambush, Boss, A Destructible Object, Patrol, Release Captive.
Enemy Groups: Devouring Earth, Arachnos
Description: A bio-geology professor, known for his study of the Devouring Earth has gone missing in eastern Talos. Find him before he gets consumed by his work!

I hope you enjoy it! Please let me know what arcs you've written and I'll be happy to review yours too.

Thanks,

-Buxley

[/ QUOTE ]

Ran this this morning with my L50 IOd Inv/EM tanker on Rugged.

Mission 1
A scientist has gone missing (don't they all) in an area inhabited by DE. Go investigate.

The map is the outdoor one with the island. Not a kill-all, thankfully. There's a couple of clues to find, and a pretty tough DE EB/AV to fight to complete. This should be noted somewhere by the contact in the mission setup, otherwise it seems like the boss is in there just for the sake of having one. The clue you find relates to Arachnos.

Mission 2
You didn't find the scientist, but the contact knows of a series of caves nearby. Go check them out to see if you can find the missing person and look for clues to Arachnos involvement. Enemies are Arachnos, so I guess that means they're involved, hehe. Escort the hostage out and destroy the Arachnos items. Destroy items goal triggers after the scientist is lead out. This was a little annoying to me because I thought the mission was done, only to have the scientist send me back into the caves to hunt for the items. It seems that this happens because the scientist tells you his story (gives you a clue) after the rescue. Note: A little typo in the chat box text when you complete the escort ("I hear..." should be "I heard...", I believe).

Mission 3
You destroyed the devices that threaten the War Walls, but the plans to make them are still out there. Go deeper into the caves to destroy the computer that houses the plans. Baddies are Arachnos. 1 Rescue, 1 item destroy, 1 boss. 1 minor typo on mission-entry popup ("... shows sign..." should be "... shows signs...")

Individual notes

- VERY few typos, which is great to see
- Simple play
- Nothing to make you remember the arc. It is solid, but not special. I played it without any sense that I'd remember it, or want to play it again. Needs something more, but what I don't know...

Thanks for creating the arc and posting it

[ QUOTE ]
Arc Name: Rise of the Arch-Lich
Arc ID: 38818

Faction: Custom Faction - Scions of Daeligon

Creator Global/Forum Name: @Molten Crusader

Difficulty Level: I designed the VG to be challenging but not impossible. They have a varying power builds but Necromancy as a staple for most of the male characters. I would suggest getting a fully fleshed out group for this arc (as with most AV hunting groups). I'm disappointed that I might have to remove some characters to add more flesh to my story but that is up to you the reviewers to decide. Most people are just farmers in AE and I am having a problem finding a full group to try my arc out with. Input about the different difficulty settings would be most appreciated as well as ideas about scaling the power sets' power levels, adding or removing a specific mob, or story ideas.

Synopsis: The basis of this mission arc is: an evil nasty lich dude is stirring and you are sent by a the spirit of a dead mage to stop him.

Estimated time to play: 4 Missions First 3 missions are item collect/boss fight with Daeligon the AV at the end of the 4th set in the giant graveyard.

I would appreciate any input about the VG. The first 4 reviews I got were 4 stars but, the last two had to be really low since I lost a star.

Thank you in advance

[/ QUOTE ]

I ran this arc this morning with my IO'd L50 Inv/EM tanker on Rugged.

Mission 1
The contact is a strange magic box that says that you need to collect magical objects in order to stop a Liche from being resurrected. You go to a warehouse to fight some custom mobs. I felt that the mobs came off like generic dungeon crawl baddies. "Vampiric Assassin", for instance. There's no explanation for why vampires, or any of the other mobs, are there. Also, several of the mobs are Necro Masterminds, which I think should be removed. Not because Necro MMs are bad to use, but because you're trying to stop the return of a Liche, who will be summoning his own undead. Having the MMs as regular minions and lut's watered the impact of the AV down for me. Once you find the mission 1 EB, he's quite tough. Too tough for most soloists, so he should be turned down some. Also, give more explanation as to who the EB is. Having one just pop up seems to be "here's an EB just to have an EB" to me.

Mission 2
Go collect another magical artifact. Same mobs, same mission, different map. No boss to fight though, even though the mission send-off text says there will be.

Mission 3
Go collect another magical artifact. Same mobs, same mission, different map. EB is a Necro MM. See my previous statements (in mission 1 above) about MMs in the arc, and giving more explanation about the EB.

Mission 4
Upon collecting the magical artifacts throughout missions 1-3, thre magic box reveals that it is in fact the Liche and you've collected all of the artifacts that it needs to resurrect itself, for it. Go fight and defeat it. Here, the story turns from thin and repetitive to "Wha...?" Why would the Liche need me to go fight through abandoned warehouses to collect the artifacts from his own faction? It's fine to have a twist, but the twist needs to make sense. Maybe the guys you've been fighting all along are a group of good-guys protecting the artifacts so the Liche doesn't get rez'ed...? Maybe a hero "pure of heart" must collect all of the items together, thanks to an ancient prophecy...? Something needs to be written other than "Thanks for getting my stuff for me, fool!"

A couple of general things:

- If you're going to create custom mobs, write a one-line custom description for them. Even the Liche's description wasn't complete.
- You've got a few typos. Nothing major... mostly words with no spaces between.
- Missions 1-3 could all be 1 mission, not 3 missions for 1 artifact each. Missions need some variety.
- One of your baddies is called "Paladin" which traditionally is a term used for good guys, specifically knights. Change that to "Dark Paladin" or something.
- Put a warning in the mission description about the EBs/AVs being there.

Overall I think the arc has the potential to be good in the vein of a classic D&D dungeon-crawl type module. You'll need a lot more writing and balancing of the mobs, especially the EBs, to get it to where it needs to be, though.

Thanks for creating and posting the arc

_________________________________________________

Re-promotion of my arc:

Thanks to some great feedback from YanYan, I've tweeked the arc a bit and would greatly appreciate any feedback.

Number - 84107
Title - Changing Leaves
Contact - Countess Crey's Bodyguard
Alignment - Heroic
Length - 3 missions, no kill-alls
Mission 1 - Blinkies required, 1 hostage rescue required, with option to fight a very tough AV (for those that want the challenge)
Mission 2 - Free Hostage
Mission 3 - Escort

Description - Countess Crey's personal Bodyguard has contacted you because a remote Crey team has stopped checking in. Normally you wouldn't care about Crey, but the team was trying to stop a powerful creature that's been hurting a lot of innocent people. Saving people is your motivation, but is that all Crey Industries cares about?

[ QUOTE ]
Arc Name: The Clockwork Crusade
Arc ID: 126073
Faction: Arachnos, Vahzilok, Council, Clockwork
Creator Global/Forum Name: @YanYan
Difficulty Level: Easy to Moderate, designed to be solo able by any AT
Mission Levels: 1-20
Synopsis: You may have failed a couple missions, botched a few jobs for your contacts, but that's no reason to be turned into a pariah. And now there's a Clockwork following you around. It's got some leads against rival factions, so you take him up on it.
Estimated Time to Play: 30 Minutes to an Hour.

[/ QUOTE ]

Pros - No typos, easy play
Cons - Premise assumes that the hero is a tool (see below)

Played with my mostly SO'ed L50 Fire/Fire blaster, exemp'ed down, on heroic.

The whole premise of this arc is that your hero has failed some missions and wants to drum-up some good publicity. I have 2 problems with this: 1 - The assumption that the hero is bad at being a hero, and 2 - that he would be willing to work with a known villain group just to improve his reputation. Neither of these things are new concepts, but having them forced on me kinda says that my hero is a tool.

Mission 1
You're contact is a clockwork, and he says that if you go clear out some Arachnos that have set up a base in Atlas Park, then you'll get some good press and the clockwork will take the scrap. It's a very straight-up fight the baddies mission. There's a nice popup as you exit which says that the clockwork scurry past you as you leave the Arachnos base. Nice visual.

Mission 2
The clockwork contact tells you about a Vazhilok base and that you should go and destroy the Vaz fluid drums. Then the clockwork will take the scrap... the price you're paying for the tip-off. Again, a simple mission. Defeat baddies and boss, and destroy barrels of fluid. You also have clickable crates that give a clue about the type of parts that the clockwork are collecting.

Mission 3
Next, the contact tells you that they tried to raid a Council base, but they got caught. They can't risk going back or the Council might declare war on the clockwork, so you'll have to go clear out the Council base so they can get the scrap. This one pushes the premise just over the edge to me. Now your character is just a clockwork enforcer. Sure, the Council are badguys... but what do I care if the 2 factions go to war? Also, defeat alls in a Council base equal much-bad-potential. 1 friggin Council soldier can hide in the tiniest place and it takes you a 1/2 hour to find the guy. This didn't happen to me luckily, but I've seen it too many times in regular missions. I recommend that you change the faction to something that would raid an office or something, if you want to keep the kill all.

Mission 4
After pressing the contact about the parts they've been gathering, he invites you into a sewer to see what they've been up to. They've created several prototypes for new clockwork, each having powers that normal clocks don't. They're well balanced for L1-20 characters. Defeat all of the prototypes to beat the mission.

I rated it 3 stars. Overall it has some nice potential, but I really think you need to change the angle that the hero is coming from. I was put off right from the start. The missions are easy to get through solo, and the writing is good. It's just the premise of the thing that bothers me. I didn't feel like a hero in the slightest, just a pawn being pushed through missions. Maybe you're uncovering clues about a clockwork plot as you fight the other factions. You go into a mission to fight Vaz, but somewhere in there is a clockwork spawn stealing parts...

Thanks for writing and posting the arc

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Number - 84107
Changing Leaves
Contact - Countess Crey
Alignment - Heroic
Length - 3 missions, no kill alls
Mission 1 - Blinkies required, with option to fight a very tough AV (for those that want the challenge)
Mission 2 - Free Hostage
Mission 3 - Escort

Description - Countess Crey has contacted you because a remote team of hers has stopped checking in. Normally you wouldn't care about Crey, but the team was trying to stop a powerful creature that's been hurting a lot of innocent people. Saving people is your motivation, but what are the Countess'?

[/ QUOTE ]

Went ahead and ran this MArc, and picked up some feedback as I went along. I hope you find it useful.

Mission One: It seems odd that Countess Crey herself is coming to you. I'd rather have the contact be her Body Guard. But if you're stuck on the Countess, I'd have her opening be along the lines of, "I'm sure you know who I am," and add a bit of condescending attitude. You also might want to have her elaborate why Paragon Protectors aren't up to the task, as those are effectively "Supers". The mission text color was nice. I had to run by the AV, as I chose not to fight him, to get to the last glowie. Not your fault, just mentioning it. Maybe elaborate in the clue, listing a few Radiation Overdose symptons

Mission Two: I'm reminded again that the Countess' Body Guard might have been a better choise for a contact, based on the dialog. It just seems kind of "campy" and "Snidely Whiplash" for the Countess Crey. At level 30, Crey is designed to be a "legitimate" company, and isn't very open about their works. Maybe have the players be lured to the facility under false pretenses (Father Root broke free!) and attempt to have their mind wiped (non-essential glowie w/ clue to it's purpose). The Mission Completion Clue doesn't do much for the story, and it's loss wouldn't be noticed. It's only re-itterating something you knew from the start of the mission. Maybe change it to a clue regarding the release of Father Root, where he goes, how he's feeling, anything.

Mission Three: Again, her dialogue sounds "campy" and out of character. Even when she was being hunted down and captured she was calm and collected to the last dialogue bubble. What you have here doesn't seem like her at all. I do like the contast between the first mission's map and the third.

Ultimately, I ended the mission with a feeling of 4/5. Closer to 3/5, but since most of my complaints consist of dialog flaws, and those can be easy enough to fix. Functionally, the missions were sound, and fairly enjoyable. I personally may have artificially limited the first mission by including a Crey Hostage or two.

And so, now for my arc!

[ QUOTE ]
Arc Name: The Clockwork Crusade
Arc ID: 126073
Faction: Arachnos, Vahzilok, Council, Clockwork
Creator Global/Forum Name: @YanYan
Difficulty Level: Easy to Moderate, designed to be solo able by any AT
Mission Levels: 1-20
Synopsis: You may have failed a couple missions, botched a few jobs for your contacts, but that's no reason to be turned into a pariah. And now there's a Clockwork following you around. It's got some leads against rival factions, so you take him up on it.
Estimated Time to Play: 30 Minutes to an Hour.



[/ QUOTE ]


[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the great feedback. I was going for the "everyone below me sucks" feel with the Countess, but obviously missinterpreted her from her in-game persona. I'll change that based on your suggestions. I also like the idea of a lone Crey hostage in the 1st mission. He could reveal some info about the true Crey motives., and will cause the player to have at least 1 battle. Good Idea, thanks.

I'll run your arc tonight. They don't let me play at work

[ QUOTE ]
Arc ID: 113682
Name: Lights, Action, Crime Spree!
Creator: @Skylord
Description: Something's wrong on the set of a new TV show. Is someone out to sabotage the project or using it to revive their flagging career?
Length: 3 missions, with an EB or AV at the end

[/ QUOTE ]

Played this this morning before work. Used a L50 Inv/EM tanker on Rugged.

Pros - Nice premise, fun banter by the boss in the last mission, good design for the mobs' costumes.
Cons - Typos, missing or too much text in certain spots.

Mission 1
The contact (which has no name) tells you that a friend of his is on a TV set, and that the actors are acting weird. He wants you to go investigate, and you do. Upon arriving it appears that the actors (in zombie costumes) are behaving like actual zombies. After you rescue the "friend" (that made the call to the contact), he says that "Carson really came through". I'm guessing that the contact's name is supposed to be Carson. You find a magical chest and destroy it.

Contacts with no names really bug me... I don't know why... but they do, and especially if they're refered to in the story. Also, the nav box is loaded with text, including something to the effect of "These actors want a fight? You've brought plenty of it.". 2 problems with this: 1 - it says that as I enter the mission, which kind of gives away the mystery. 2: I don't like the language that says that I'm prepared to whoop on a bunch of guys in makeup who pose a minimal threat to me.

Mission 2
The contact tells you that the trunk you destroyed was from a new prop company, and that there's another set where people are acting like their characters. Go check it out.

Entering the mission, you encounter minions dressed as "Ninja Master", "Bad Guy with Gun", and "Action Hero". They look cool and the idea is fun, but the mission feels like the contact has said to you: "go over here while I check stuff out". I don't mind this too much, but there's no new info in this mission. You find a magical amulet in a desk.

Mission 3
Your contact fills you in on the identity of the Boss, and how he has the power to make actors believe that they are their characters. You head off to stop him.

Up until now I'd only encountered minions. In mission 3 I started getting lut's, one of which was a Mastermind-type. Not a big deal, but I note it here because I don't know whether or not that was intentional or a bug in missions 1 & 2. The boss is also a Mastermind-type (thugs). Fighting him as an EB on an Inv tanker was no problem, but squishies could be in a little trouble. Didn't seem too bad, though. He has some nice lines during the fight.

Over all I rated it 4 stars because I think with some text editing to clean up typos and make the plot a little clearer, it would be a solid arc. Character design is nice, and I'd guess that you could run it in about 20 minutes.

_________________________________

My arc:

Number - 84107
Changing Leaves
Contact - Countess Crey
Alignment - Heroic
Length - 3 missions, no kill alls
Mission 1 - Blinkies required, with option to fight a very tough AV (for those that want the challenge)
Mission 2 - Free Hostage
Mission 3 - Escort

Description - Countess Crey has contacted you because a remote team of hers has stopped checking in. Normally you wouldn't care about Crey, but the team was trying to stop a powerful creature that's been hurting a lot of innocent people. Saving people is your motivation, but what are the Countess'?

9 Ideas for Building a Better Custom Boss

10 is overused.

A lot of folks have been complaining about some bosses being too powerful in Missions Architect arcs. Players not being able to handle a boss generally does not impress the player, it annoys and maybe even enrages. These players may either not complete your arc, or give you a low rating which no architect wants.

I personally have several arcs with tough bosses in them. Here are a few tricks that I've found useful in creating tough, interesting, and manageable bosses...

1 - Take your time in developing your bosses. Think their concept through thoroughly and make the boss' powers fit your concept, but choose the powersets very carefully with special attention paid to secondary effects. You may like the way electricity looks, but no one likes being without endurance, for instance. Definitely go further than "OMG HE's SO POWERFUL NO ONE CAN BEAT HIM!!!!!!!!"

2 - If your concept of your boss is for it to be very powerful, make fighting it optional. That way your players can take it on if they choose to, or work around it. This will make you think about the missions a bit more, but you may be pleasantly surprised with what you come up with when being creative. I've had missions develop in totally different directions than I originally conceived just by having to think around the boss.

3 - If you decide that the boss needs to be very powerful and must be defeated for mission completion, consider either setting them to "Boss" (not EB/AV), and/or limiting their powers to Standard or Hard. I like to focus on 1 powerset over another, so I often set an EB to be Hard primary and Standard secondary, for example. If I want them to have a lot of powers I set them to Boss. I learned this when testing an early arc where I had the players battling a Dark Miasma/Dark Blast EB on Extreme. Doesn't sound too bad, but I found that anything without mez protection can get slaughtered, and some builds with mez protection will have a rough time too. That one taught me a lot...

4 - A trick to making a boss fight more interesting without making the boss too difficult to defeat is to add ambushes. Bosses can trigger an ambush at 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 health, and also after being defeated. Make the boss strong enough to last as the ambushes happen, but not so tough that players never get to see the ambushes at all because they keep faceplanting.

5 - Think of the poor solo'er, please. Making a Will Power/Fire Blast AV on Extreme means, very simply, that most solo'ers won't be able to do your arc, period.

6 - Limit the number of bosses in your missions. One of the biggest complaints I see on the boards is that a mission has too many EB/AVs. I generally agree with this. Walking into the final room of a map to see multiple AVs can be quite disheartening, especially if the rest of the arc/mission has been hard already. We all acknowledge that multiple AVs is a sight to behold, but not one most people relish.

7 - Be VERY careful about making your bosses flee, especially with a lot of hit points left... on small maps... with placement set to front... ungh. On outdoor maps it can be worse if the boss has fly. I like Fly. I take it on most of my characters. I think flying bosses are kinda cool, too. That said, flying, fleeing bosses stink on ice. Seriously though, bosses escaping can be fine if it moves the story forward, but maddening if it means that you fail the last mission of an arc and won't get a crack at that boss again unless you do the whole thing over. Consider fleeing bosses carefully, especially if you make them very tough.

8 - Test, Test, TEST!!! Do it with different characters at different levels. You have no idea who will be trying your missions. What your IO'ed Tanker can handle solo and what my SO'ed Defender can handle solo will often be 2 very different things. That brings up another point...

9 - Warn the players in the mission description, mission intro text, and mission send off text if a powerful boss will be in the arc/mission. This may be the most important thing you can do because it let's players know what they're getting into. If they feel like a challenge, then they'll play it. Others can avoid wasting time in missions only to get to the last one of the arc to find that they can't finish it.

A Final Note

Not specific to bosses, but in general I say always give other architects feedback, and rate their arcs honestly. I'd hate for someone to tell me "I couldn't finish because the boss was too hard, but I gave you 5 stars anyway for your story". Arcs should be enjoyable, well-written, and playable. Let other people know what they can improve in their arcs (nicely, hehe)... it'll just make them better architects.

Thanks for reading, and apologies for typos

Hey,

My wife is making an arc that involves several groups, including the Family, Cabal, and CoT. The Family range is listed at 5-40, but whenever we test the 2 missions that contain them they cap out at 30. The Cabal in mission 3 and CoT in mission 4 scale properly, so I was wondering if anyone has encountered a problem with using the Family and their level range?

Thanks for reading.

Do not build Mission Architect missions set to kill all, with short timers & filled with max-power AVs, then complain that nobody is giving you a 5 star rating.

Hey,

I've found myself coming up with story ideas and then needing a villain group to use, and to move the story forward. To my surprise I keep coming back to the Devouring Earth. There's just so many plots/eco-terrorist/mutation/etc things you can do with them that I never thought of before MissArc.

Has anyone else found a particular group that you find yourself going back to?

Thanks,

[ QUOTE ]
we definitely need to list the genre of missions - could be action or horror, but more importantly could be spoof, or humor. Maybe the guy intended it to be that dumb. But the player should be warned.

A problem right now is simply the low number of ratings most have. A "proper" rating system drops the outliers once you get enough ratings. If an arc has 100 ratings it should drop the top 5 and bottom 5. So if a few people try to skew the ratings it gets fixed.

But if you only have 2 ratings there isn't much that can be done.

[/ QUOTE ]

The flaw that I see is that right now people seem to be more into creating missions than playing them. That's fine and should level out over time. For right now though, yes a lot of us have our missions sitting there with 1, 2, or no ratings at all.

[ QUOTE ]
But if DC/HOF are the only methods that will ever be provided, we're really not going to get the growth we need with MA. Quality authors bring quality content bring players to the game, which is good for COH's health in the long run. And I'm guessing that more than 2% of all authors are of a high enough caliber to produce lots of solid stuff.


[/ QUOTE ]

There is no basis for this statement, or against it. You can't know if 2% or more of players will generate "solid stuff", or not. I've played a few fun arcs, but nothing so far that blew me away. Even a lot of the 5 star stuff is meh, and makes me think that architects are getting their friends/sg mates to rate them high.

I like that the devs have set a very high bar because HoF and Devs Choice should be hard to get. The majority of writers should not qualify for it because the majority of arcs cannot mathematically be worthy, or they'd need to institute a higher reward... Super Mega Dev Favorite of Awesome level or something.

Also consider that they limited us to 3 published arcs because of server space limitations. Letting us buy publish slots doesn't fix that.

Look at it this way: there have been a lot of authors who have written "good" books. Some people that read them like them... some love them... some are meh to them, and some people hate them. Out of those authors, only a couple of them will hit it big and get multi-book deals. Soem of them get dropped by their publisher and never publish another book again. The popular authors do something that makes folks like their work... something that makes it stand out. try to be that author, not the guy who can't get a deal and spends his own money at cafepress.com.

From the FAQ:

[ QUOTE ]
We have language filters that check for bad words and won’t let you publish them until you remove them.

[/ QUOTE ]

Can we please get a list of the "bad words"? I know that stuff like cursing will be out, that's obvious. But what else? Some of us folks might want to take advantage of the game's rating and make stories that have slightly darker elements. I'd hate to waste time writing a story that ultimately cannot be published because a particular criminal action is considered a "bad word", for instance.

Thanks,

[ QUOTE ]


2) Are you going to be correcting for weird human behavior like people who only give the minimum or maximum value, never give ratings above or below the midpoint, or rate every single arc the exact same value?



Not yet.

[/ QUOTE ]

I work as a computer trainer and get rated by my students on a 1-9 scale everyday. I can honestly say that over my career I've been rated by thousands of people, and have maintained an overall average of just over 8.4. My point is that yes... you will get the occasional person that only gives a median value ever... and they are infuriating, hehe. But over all if you do a good job people will recognize you for it.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Name: Wonder Woman
Concept: She's... you know... Wonder Woman... and stuff...
Blurb: Every year the local comic shop, in conjunction with another shop in Seattle, have "Wonder Woman Day" which raises money for women's shelters. They always ask talented artists to donate WW art, which gets auctioned off. The only thing they stipulate about it is that they don't want "violent" pictures, or any weapons (featuring WW's lasso and bracelets is fine). Basically they like the "strong woman" thing for the art. If I get selected, I'll pay the shipping to get the original piece for the auction.

Thanks for running this contest.

PS - If ya (Foo) want bickering, then how about "All ya other posters are selfish bastiches!"

[/ QUOTE ]
Dude, I'd totally do this, but my work's all digital. I don't imagine anyone would be keen on an auction for a one-of-a-kind print of a digital work.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, if you worked your magic, printed it, and then deleted the original file it would absolutely be a one-of-a-kind original. Probably the first one we've ever gotten that was all digital, too. That would be pretty bad-azz imo.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Name: Wonder Woman
Concept: She's... you know... Wonder Woman... and stuff...
Blurb: Every year the local comic shop, in conjunction with another shop in Seattle, have "Wonder Woman Day" which raises money for women's shelters. They always ask talented artists to donate WW art, which gets auctioned off. The only thing they stipulate about it is that they don't want "violent" pictures, or any weapons (featuring WW's lasso and bracelets is fine). Basically they like the "strong woman" thing for the art. If I get selected, I'll pay the shipping to get the original piece for the auction.

Thanks for running this contest.

PS - If ya (Foo) want bickering, then how about "All ya other posters are selfish bastiches!"

[/ QUOTE ]

Isn't Wonder Woman Day Sept./Oct.-ish? I remember seeing the '08 pieces just a few months ago.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, but we (I know the people who run it in NJ) ask artists to donate whenever we see opportunity. That way when we get to Oct we have plenty of stuff to auction.

Name: Wonder Woman
Concept: She's... you know... Wonder Woman... and stuff...
Blurb: Every year the local comic shop, in conjunction with another shop in Seattle, have "Wonder Woman Day" which raises money for women's shelters. They always ask talented artists to donate WW art, which gets auctioned off. The only thing they stipulate about it is that they don't want "violent" pictures, or any weapons (featuring WW's lasso and bracelets is fine). Basically they like the "strong woman" thing for the art. If I get selected, I'll pay the shipping to get the original piece for the auction.

Thanks for running this contest.

PS - If ya (Foo) want bickering, then how about "All ya other posters are selfish bastiches!"

Can someone point me to where to buy the new booster pack? I can't find it on the playNC site. Or is it only available for Mac still?

Thx,

Night Fyre and Zillah's Base.

Night Fyre is my Fire Blaster and Zillah is my wife's Dark Defender. I never did anything to funky with our base, but got inspired by some of the designs here. A couple of notes:

1 - somehow I got turned around and put the entrance at the "top" of the map, hehe.
2 - The base is built more for style and look, than actual function.
3 - I don't do magic desks.
4 - The place is sparsely decorated on purpose, except for the library which is still not too packed. The mood of the place is aimed at ancient, and nigh uninhabited. The CoT mage lived there alone so not a lot of stuff.

The story behind the design

NF and Zillah recently defeated a powerful CoT mage, and since their base was destroyed in the last Rikti invasion (convenient, huh?), they decided to stake a claim to the mage's stronghold. The fact that he had compiled a vast library of knowledge of all-things evil, and seemed to be the guardian of an ancient crypt helped in their decision, too.

The "Protected Crypt" contains 2 "coffins". It's guarded by powerful spells focused in several crystal balls. No one we've brought in has been able to crack the spells and gain entrance to the crypt, so we've taken guardianship of the place in part to monitor the crypt until the spells are broken. The walls seem to be painted in human blood and the crypt contains a single torch that never goes out. No other light will function in that hall.

The library is a massive collection of ancient and powerful knowledge. We will begin cataloging it and using it aid in our fight against the forces of darkness.

Base Linky, feedback welcome

[ QUOTE ]
I lol at the fast that all the hicksvilles on CoX are coming to the New York City of Cox, trying to tell us how do live. Go back to your sandbox lil children. This plane ain't for the feint of heart.

[/ QUOTE ]

Geez, with your wonderful attitude toward the other servers it really is a wonder as to why those of us not-on Freedom don't give a crap about your 2X XP weekend. </sarcasm>

Seriously, I read "ghost town" comments all the time on these boards, and Freedom stuff like "We're the best server... blah blah blah... we have the best players... blah blah blah..." Good for ya, I say. Come on over to Triumph, we've been green alllllll weekend with no shortage of teams.

Please note that I'm not saying that having your server fill up doesn't suck, I'm just annoyed at the post I quoted because it's so typical of elitist idiots who like to puff themselves up, then whine whine whine when their little world doesn't go like they think it should.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Maybe they shouldnt have anymore double XP weekends at all, sine it always manages to royally piss everyone the hell off.

[/ QUOTE ]

Honestly, I think the same thing.

Edit: I'd rather it be a temp power that you could trigger whenever. Make it an "awarded only to active accounts on this day" and let people use it when they want.

[/ QUOTE ]

The only people it pisses off are people from Freedom. Be careful when you say "everyone". I've had a great 2X xp weekend so far.

Freedom and Virtue go red or gray every 2X xp weekend, but nobody wants to move there characters so it keeps happening. It's that simple. So stay there and keep bitchin and not-playing.

Offense:

Psychic Weapons, Dual Blades (Street Fighting a close 3rd)

Defense:

Force Fields, and Shields I guess... don't know what the others are.

On a side note: No Staff Fighting? Booooooooo...

Night Fyre's Guide to the Fire Control/Trick Arrow Controller

Background

About 6 months ago I was playing a character on my wife's account that was Fire Control/Empathy. She had started the character a while ago and had gotten her to level 22. It's at that time that she seemed to lose interest in the character, but I was curious about Fire Imps so decided to level her to 32 (plus I hoped that getting to Imps may get my wife interested again).

I wasn't a big fan of the combo, so once I got to 32 and saw how much fun the Imps could be I figured I'd make a Fire Control/something for myself. I'm a big guy on concept though and things like Fire/Rad or Fire/Kin I just couldn't get my mind around. I then came up with a concept that I liked so I headed to the boards to look up a guide on Fire/Trick Arrow but couldn't find any. There are several great guides on the sets separately though, and those I'll link to below, but not a Fire/TA. This guide I hope will remedy that.

First, Links to Other Guides

Foxmaiden's Fire Control Guide
Laughing Last Trick Arrow Guide

Because the above guides give so much useful info on the powers, I’ll not be repeating most of that here. What I’d like to concentrate on instead, is why I think Fire Control/Trick Arrow is an underappreciated combo and to go over several “goods” and “bads” of playing one.

Why Fire/TA Works

I've become a big fan of this combo, but I run the only Fire/TA Controller I’ve ever seen in game (Triumph server) at the time of this writing. There must be reasons for this, and I'll go into what I think those are a little later on. For now I want to focus on the good points of Fire/TA.

Stackability, a Concept

One of, if not the bigest thing about Fire/TA is stackability. You have a lot of powers between the 2 sets that do the same thing, or something very similar to other powers. As a Controller you will often want to stack effects on Lut's and Bosses. In most cases this involves firing-off a power, waiting for it to recharge, and firing-it-off again. With the Fire/TA this is usually not necessary. See below.

1 - 2 Immobilizes, Ring of Fire (Damage, -Fly) and Entangling Arrow (-Fly)

OK, I know that a lot of people don't see the importance of immobilize powers. But with Fire/TA you can immobilize Bosses at level 1 (yes 1) . Now hopefully you’re not seeing too many bosses at that point, but think about it's usefulness in the coming levels. If you’re a Hollows person, at L5 you want to keep those Troll and Outcast Bosses as far away from you as possible. If it's not Bosses, think about all the Lut's that are better kept at range. The other benefit is of course the ability to quickly setup containment. Instead of using Char for containment for RoF, you can use Entangling Arrow for containment for RoF and use Char to hold/damage someone else. Each power also has -Fly on it. Very handy for pulling Outcasts, Sky Raiders, Freakshow, etc, out of the sky, as well as for PvP.

2 - 2 Single Target Holds (Char, Ice Arrow)

How could having 2 Single Target holds ever be bad? Hold 2 Lut’s at once or hold a Boss in a couple of seconds. You can get Char at L1, and Ice Arrow at L10. 'Nuff said.

3 - 2 Stealth/Accuracy Debuff Powers (Smoke, Flash Arrow)

I didn't take both Smoke and Flash Arrow myself for concept reasons, but ultimately they both give you Stealth AND an Accuracy Debuff for the baddies (with both powers slotted with SOs you'll be getting somewhere around a 15% Accuracy debuff on the baddies). The Stealth will help you get close enough for the Imps to jump in.

4 - 2 -Resist Powers (Acid Arrow and Disruption Arrow)

Acid Arrow has a great Defense debuff (25%ish), and both of these powers offer a nice Resistance debuff (20ish% for Acid Arrow and 15ish% for Disruption Arrow), and they stack. That's around a 40% resistance debuff for the Imps to exploit. Tasty.

Other Reasons for Using Fire/TA

So stackability is great, but let's not forget that once you hit 32 a lot of your focus shifts to using the Imps as your main source of damage. So how does Fire/TA work for that?

1 - Powers that help Imps stay alive (Flash Fire, Poison Gas Arrow, Glue Arrow)

Does the awesomeness of Flash Fire even need to be brought-up? A ranged AoE Disorient with a good recharge rate that, coupled with Fire Cages, creates a nice roasting area for the Imps to exploit? How could it be bad. It can't.

Some people like to put-down Poison Gas Arrow, but with you and your Imps being as squishy as you/they are, a 25% damage debuff (30% for defenders) on the baddies is very welcome. Coupled with the Recharge reduction of Glue Arrow, they are not only attacking for less damage but attacking less frequently as well. Glue Arrow will also drive people nuts in PvP.

2 - Powers that help Imps kill quicker

As mentioned above, Acid Arrow and Disruption for more hits for more damage.

3 - No Inherent Toggles other than Hot Feet

That's right, no toggles from your Primary or Secondary UNLESS you take Hot Feet. My Controller didn't since he's a range Controller, but I did take Stealth from the Concealment pool.

4 - EMP Arrow
What an awesome “oh boy the crap is hitting the fan” tool. Fire this bad-boy off and stuff just stops moving. Great for a reset of the battlefield if you get in trouble. Careful though as it stops you from gaining any endurance for a while. With virtually no toggles to run though this won’t be as big a deal as it would for some combos.

Potential Problems

Of course most combos have some problems. I mentioned earlier in this guide that I play the only Fire/TA I've ever seen in game. That's doesn't mean I'm the only one out there of course, but it does tell me that we're very rare. Why would this be? Some possibilities are listed here. Please carefully consider each one as they all can have a big impact on your playing experience.

1 - No Heal

Now this may not seem like a problem to you except for the fact that Imps can be so squishy, but it can definitely be a problem when trying to get a PuG. SOOOOOOO many people insist that a Defender or Controller have a heal that if you get a /tell asking what your powersets are, you can miss out on a lot of invites. This is an unfortunate state that we can do nothing about except prove people wrong when we do join teams.

2 - Agro

Fire/TA can draw massive agro since most of your powers are AoE (Flash Fire, Fire Cages, Smoke, Flash Arrow, Glue Arrow, Acid Arrow, Poison Gas Arrow, Disruption Arrow, Cinders, Bonfire, Oil Slick). Here are some tricks for avoiding agro:

- When in a team, don’t worry about starting the fight with anything except Smoke and/or Flash Arrow. Let the Tanker go in and grab the agro, then drop your debuffy goodness.
- When using your debuffs be extremely careful about their placement. If you target a baddie too close to another group you can very easily pull that group to your team and cause a wipe. On large teams with high difficulty, so many baddies can be on a map that the chances of this go through the roof. Knowing where to place the debuff is often the difference between a good TA and a bad one. This holds true for powers in the Primary as well, like Fire Cages.

3 - Redraw

Some people hate hate hate the redraw of any weapon set, and TA is no exception to that. Every time you throw Char or Ring of Fire your bow will go away. Then when you want to toss another Ice Arrow, it adds a second to the animation which is already several seconds. There's nothing you can do about it. Get used to it. The Fire powers are too good to not use when they're up.

4 - The Oil Slick Bug

If Oil Slick ignites it freaks pets out. They run out of it then can become immobile for a time. Very bad bug when running Imps, which you’ll want to do solo post 32. In teams not as big of an issue unless you’re teamed with other pet-users.

5 - Lack of Effect in Hamidon Raids

The perception (or lack thereof since most people won't be familiar with the combo) of our usefulness in a raid is, like the redraw and lack of a heal, something you'll just need to deal with. We TAs would love to be regarded higher but what most people are looking for (Ill, Emp, Kin), we're not.

6 - The Learning Curve

It's not an ego thing... it really isn't... it's just true... TA is a hard set to play. Since many people try it because of a concept then abandon it after a few levels, it's tough to get a handle on the set. Couple that with Fire Control which is regarded by many skilled players as a set that's very easy to play badly (no, you don't have to fire-off Fire Cages every time it's recharged ;P), that makes for a combo that can cause a great many team wipes. You need patience and precision.

Playing the Fire/TA

Remembering several general guidelines can help you both have fun and be an effective Fire/TA for both Solo play and teaming.

1 - Arrow first

In order to minimize the impact of redraw on your play, try to use your TA powers first. Your primary spots for this are the Ice Arrow/Char combo, and the Entangling Arrow/RoF combo (or a mix of them ie: Ice Arrow/RoF). Another option is if you drop a Smoke or Flash Arrow on a mob and then drag your Imps into them. Once the Imps engage, drop Poison Gas --> Glue Arrow --> Acid Arrow --> Fire Cages.

The major exception to this rule is to open with Flash Fire --> Fire Cages ( a classic approach). Once that's down you whip out the bow for the Acid Arrow --> Poison Gas --> Glue Arrow combo since the majority of the baddies will be locked in place anyway.

2 - Patience

The Fire/TA is not for the impatient. It's a combo of 2 sets that a lot of players don't really understand. Most people who are serious about Trick Arrow acknowledge that it has a pretty big learning curve compared to other sets. Take your time, pick your spots.

3 - Don't start a fight with Glue Arrow (solo)

Glue Arrow is an amazing power. It will also get you killed A LOT if improperly used. The only times you should open with Glue Arrow s if you’re confident that you can survive the Alpha from the baddies, because it will be headed your way. I don’t recommend this however. I say start with Smoke and/or Flash Arrow, followed by Poison Gas Arrow then Glue Arrow. The baddies will be quite debuffed for accuracy and damage, or possibly even asleep. And then slowed. This is of course, again, if you're not using Flash Fire --> Fire Cages to start.

4 - Smoke Smoke Smoke

This could also be called “Flash Arrow Flash Arrow Flash Arrow” or “Smoke Flash Arrow”. The main idea here is that some Stealth and -Accuracy on the baddies is NEVER bad, especially once you get to Imps. Anything that creates a little more surprise for you is a good thing. Some people avoid these powers. I say grab at least one of them if not both. Note though that neither Smoke or Flash Arrow stack with themselves (ie: 2 Smokes does not increase the Accuracy debuff), but as previously mentioned they do stack with each other.

5 - Imps

Engaging with Imps is pretty straight forward. Smoke --> FlashFire --> Fire Cages --> Draw in Imps --> Acid Arrow --> Poison Gas Arrow --> Glue Arrow --> Hold Hold Hold. The tricky part is if you're taking on a group of baddies that is quite close to another. If that's the case, be sure to Smoke or Flash Arrow the other group and draw your Imps close enough to only attack the baddies closest to you. They are of course, friggin-crazy little buggers so you really need to keep an eye on them and that second group. Having 2 Single Target Holds will be a big help to you, but do not be afraid to run if it gets ugly.

-IMPORTANT- Imps recharge fairly quickly. If one or all of them die, you can just re-summon them. Don't defend them to the point where you take debt. If you die, they die anyway too. Run --> Re-summon --> Return --> Rip stuff up.

The Build I Use and Why

As I mentioned way back at the beginning of this guide, I’m a real stickler for concept. Because my Fire/TA is Magic origin I really tried to avoid taking any “tech” arrows. I didn’t have any powers I wanted at 38 so gave-in and took EMP Arrow (it really is too good as an “oh crap” anyway). As explained earlier though, Disruption Arrow is awesome too and for most chars you’ll want to take it unless you’re like me.

This is my Build through 40. I stopped there because I always figure that APP’s are such a matter of preference that breaking down my selection wouldn’t be really helpful. Just as an FYI though, I’ll be going with Fire.

+---------------------------------------------
+ Built with SuckerPunch's Online Planner
+ http://www.cohplanner.com
+---------------------------------------------
Name: N/A
Level: 41
Archetype: Controller
Primary: Fire Control
Secondary: Trick Arrow
+---------------------------------------------
01 => Entangling Arrow ==> Acc(1)
01 => Char ==> Acc(1),Acc(3),Rech(3),Rech(5),Hold(5),Hold(7)
02 => Ring of Fire ==> Acc(2),Dam(15),Dam(23),Dam(25),EndCost(31)
04 => Glue Arrow ==> Rech(4),Slow(25),Range(34)
06 => Fire Cages ==> Acc(6),Acc(7),EndCost(9),EndCost(9)
08 => Hover ==> Flight(8),Flight(40),Flight(40)
10 => Ice Arrow ==> Acc(10),Acc(11),Rech(11),Rech(13),Rech(13),Hold(15)
12 => Swift ==> Flight(12)
14 => Fly ==> Flight(14),Flight(27),Flight(27)
16 => Flashfire ==> Acc(16),Acc(17),Rech(17),Rech(19),Rech(19),DisDur(21)
18 => Health ==> Heal(18)
20 => Stamina ==> EndMod(20),EndMod(21),EndMod(23)
22 => Acid Arrow ==> Acc(22),Rech(31),Range(34)
24 => Stealth ==> EndCost(24)
26 => Poison Gas Arrow ==> Rech(26),Range(31)
28 => Hasten ==> Rech(28),Rech(29),Rech(29)
30 => Smoke ==> Rech(30)
32 => Fire Imps ==> Acc(32),Dam(33),Dam(33),Dam(33),Acc(34),Acc(36)
35 => Oil Slick Arrow ==> Rech(35),Rech(37),Rech(37),Dam(37),Dam(39),Dam(39)
38 => EMP Arrow ==> Rech(38), Rech(39), Rech(40)
+---------------------------------------------
01 => Sprint ==> Empty(1)
01 => Brawl ==> Empty(1)
02 => Rest ==> Empty(1)


Well, that’s the end. Thanks to everyone for reading. If there are any mistakes in here please let me know and I’ll correct them ASAP.

I gotta say that I'm really suprised by the level of entitlement I'm seeing represented here. Where is it written that every character is entitled to everything? At this exact moment can you get the Winter event badges? No, you can't. Now what if they don't use those same badges next year, but you want that cool badge on your new Ice/Ice tanker? Tough. You're outa luck. Same thing here for Inventions... you may not be able to earn every IO, but that's what the friggin auction houses are for! In that way, it's even better than unavailable badges because if you can't get it on a certain character, someone else can or you can use an alt!

Also don't forget what Positron said about gameplay... IOs are not required to play and they are not raising the difficulty of mobs against the introduction of IOs, so keeping SOs is fine and in some cases will yeild better bonuses.

It's all coming across as a whole lotta "me me me" crap here people.

Now that I got that out, let me say that I do agree that having certain drops tied to non-repeatable content may make getting those kinda tough, but I have no problem with that. Where's the reward of getting something if it can be gotten at anytime? You might as well just have a friggin store selling the IOs in that case.

Jeez people lighten up, it's still a friggin game.

Don't know if this has been posted in this thread before, but here's a blog of opinions on this movie.

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/200...kombat_sp.html