OzzieArcane

I'm of the opinion that you should build whatever type of mission you want. Afterall just like any other aspect of the game, you should do what you enjoy rather then concentrating solely on what others enjoy.

With that said however, I know that none of us want people 1 starring our story arcs. So if you're arc is ment to be unsoloable or even downright near impossible, it needs to say so in the description.

Group name can't be the exact same since the group name is also the file name. What I did was took the group name and added Elite to the end for the unique bosses for mine.

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It's nice to know that the devs are actually looking into arcs that aren't just currently at 5 stars. A few of the arcs that I've played and liked, with a great story, well written, and were fun to play, sometimes end up getting 1 starred by people with no comments or feedback at all, dropping their rating.

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I'm hating the rating system at the moment myself. Because people in general don't seem to understand the concept of rating something. They look at it as a yes or no question. Do you like something? If yes 5 if no 1.

I test my arcs with my level 50 Willpower/SS Tanker on Level 5 difficulty. If I can't solo it, I try to make Adjustments unless it was an arc I intended to be unsoloable.

The best you can do is put in a boss that drags up the level. But the only one I can think of that is specifically 50 is Tyrant.

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Making an arc based on your character instead of the good of the arc is a major cause of bad arcs.

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I do believe most professional writers would disagree with your views. A great story is made by great characters.

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Yup, my upcoming arc, "The Revenge of Mary-Sue" will show everyone exactly how incredibly awesome my character is. I fully expect everyone to be so floored by the sheer awesomeness of my character that it probably be both Hall of Fame AND Dev's Choice. Because my character is JUST THAT COOL, and hey, I should know, cuz I made them, and I know they're just so awesome that no one will EVER defeat them. They'll be too busy being awed at how great my character is, and then they won't even see the big one-shot attack coming!

Don't worry tho, I've included an ally who is almost as cool as my character. He can pretty much complete the whole mission himself, but you get to watch these two totally cool characters fight. Man, you gotta admit that'll be pretty sweet.

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For the record. I didn't do that. My villain doesn't even make an actual appearance in the arc. There just are a few Fake Nemesis style bosses of him in it. Overall the arc is about stopping what's going on that he just happens to be behind.

It's just easier to write with your own characters because there is no chance of you making your own character do something that's out of character.

What difficulty do you have your character set for?

Bah, I can't do Zombra's patrol idea. It doesn't seem to want to let you select a custom group for a patrol if the group contains no custom critters.

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Chimera are freaking crimefighters!

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Looking back at this now. Did you get Chimera confused with Wyvern? Cause Chimera is the Praetorian version of Manticore, so he's a villain.

As far as slimming down the group. As it stands now it's probably going to consist of field agents, night widows, and Werewolves(From the group titled Werewolves, not the Council's Warwolves). I'm gonna see if I can add some custom minions into the mix and manage to get it up with that IGOR program I was reading about. If that doesn't work, for the sake of space. I may just replace his minions with Malta and say he hired them to guard the base.

A major problem for me has been the lack of high level ninjas aside from the ones that work for Chimera. My character is a Ninja mastermind and the heir thing has been part of his backstory since long before I even heard of the MA.

What I'm suggesting, is adding generic enemies to the game that fall into specific themes like say mobsters or ninjas that would count as levels 1-54. Just have them be in the MA editor when picking stuff to put in custom groups or as bosses. This would make setting up a custom group easier. You could get the kinds of enemies you want in your group without being stuck in a specific level range or using up chunks of your file space on custom critters.

I suppose you're right about the level crunching to make it make more sense. Especially seeing as the follow up arc is going to be level 45+ regardless due to bosses I intend to use.

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"Boy, I sure hope things work out for Mrs. Evil," "Yeah, it was great working with her at Widow School."

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Zombra, do you mind it I actually snatch that line? I find it amusing and can work with some of the other corny lines I have pop up at parts.

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but Crey don't "loan out" their agents

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I can understand your reasoning behind most of what you said. But it shouldn't be that weird for an Evil Corporation to have scientists, security guards, and guys in suits wandering around. They're all kinda generic looking and weren't intended to be Crey Agents as far as my story went. I avoided their Paragon Protectors and Armored guys cause they had a very distinct look to them that seperates them from everything else.

The only things that were intended to be part of the group they're originally from were the Night Widows. Which I'm probably going to at least remove them and the Ink Men. Honestly probably wouldn't have made half the choices I did if I could have just picked the Mastermind pets as parts of the group and wasn't trying to fill in level gaps throughout the group.

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In my personal opinion, the Knives of Artemis are overboard all by themselves. Against a steamroller team, nothing stands up for long, but solo they are quite a match.

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Its just the minions though. No lts or bosses. I remember the bosses being annoying as a Mastermind and I thought the name "Mercenary" was generic enough to not sound like it sticks in a particular group.

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Knowing only this it sounds like your arc will be a bunch of stuff happens and you think it makes sense because you know a lot that the player doesn't.

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Yes and no. The first 3 missions are pretty well explained because Evil Incorporated just shows up at the end of Mission 3 and is the enemy in mission 4 because they were behind everything. It's kind of at the point where you have a pretty good understanding of what's going on and at that point the main thing is shutting down their current plan.

I've added a few things to try to give a little detail. But it's hard to write dialogue along the lines of "You've gotta stop them now! Oh by the way they have this, this, this, this, this, and this!" without sounding weird. A contact generally doesn't give you a history lesson about the enemies you're facing before sending you in. I don't know, I just kinda felt that as long as the villain himself is explained, then it shouldn't matter too much what kinda croneys they're sending at you.

I guess part of the problem is it would greatly help if we could attach descriptions for custom groups that are in our missions without having custom minions in the group.

A mission arc of mine got one starred by someone who judging from his comment simply thought my custom group was absurd. I don't really have time or space in the storyline to explain why Evil Incorporated has the things in it that it does. SG members told me there was nothing really wrong with the arc and couldn't believe someone would 1 star it, but being my friends they're kinda biased I'd say.

I'll start by saying President Evil is a dark sorcerer and Evil Incorporated is a group similar to Crey, but they use alot of stolen technology. Also Evil's wife is the heir to a clan of Ninjas and a high ranking Night Widow. To save space for the eventually unique bosses that will be associated with the group in later missions every enemy in my custom group is a pre existing enemy in the game, but I tried to avoid ones with names that link them directly to the group they're originally from.

I just want thoughts on if any of this sounds too ridiculess, but my group consists of...

At the lower levels (20-24) primarily ink men and ninjas from the Tsoo. I also have Warwolf lts and bosses that go up to level 50.

Levels 25-40 Mek Men minions and Lts start appearing as well as various demon lts and bosses. At levels 30-45 various crey scientists and guards start getting mixed in. Also at 35+ there are Night Widow lts but they tend to get drowned out by all hte other lts.

At level 40+ warwolf minions start appearing as well as the Mercenary minions from the Knives of Artemis(Closest thing I could find to female ninjas). Lastly 45+ I have Chimera's minions and lts to add some higher end ninjas to the group.

Did I over do it? Thoughts?

Two somewhat interlocked arcs listed in chronological order.

Arc Name: Web of Deception
Arc ID: 75310
Faction: Villainous
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Ozzie Arcane
Level: 40+
Synopsis: Aid President Evil in carrying out his latest scheme.
Estimated Time to Play: Doing a test run with my tanker it took me alittle over an hour. It's 5 missions long. Depending on class should be completable solo on most difficulties. The hardest things in it are a couple elite bosses. One of them is listed as an AV but she's really only as strong as an Elite Boss.

Arc Name: What was once Lost...
Arc ID: 118023
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Ozzie Arcane
Level: 25-50
Synopsis: A group of renegade Lost has emerged calling themselves The Found. Thwart their evil plans for the city.

I suggest having help for the last mission out of 4 if you have trouble with EBs. Especially if you're at the lower end levels. Soloed it on indestructible with my Tanker but she's level 50.

Some of them appear under "Civilians" I believe.

Most simple solution you can have. Name the minions, lts, regular bosses "XXX" and name the group for the uniques something like "XXX Elite". It's the best you can do.

I think it's a wasted effort. I don't think a lot of people actually read the clues. They expect most of the story to be in dialogue.

Tyrant is on the list but has no minions. Anti-Matter has been asked A LOT the last few days by me included. Know one really knows why he's not available. My suggestion? Use Positron and rename him. Give him Neuron's minions. Closest you can get at the moment.

I think there might be issues with Anti-Matter compared to the others because he only appeared in a 40-45 arc so unlike the others hasn't been scaled to go up to level 50-54.

You can always check out the arcs posted up for review in this thread. http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....part=1&vc=1

I'm sure the authors would appreciate their arcs getting another play from someone. Although I took down the one I posted in there to make room for other arcs I'm working on.

One of my bosses will be recognizable by the time you get to him. President Evil has robot dopplegangers he can talk through do his dirty work. They're much weaker then him but you'll basicly have seen him several times before you fight the real deal.

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Hell! How many Santa Clauses do you see every year? Now add in cultural bias, hatred, religious fervor, and a symbol of modern pain.

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Kind of a funny thing to bring up seeing as they added ol St. Nick's costume parts to the game.

Taking a look at your post. It's pretty obvious what's happening. It's blocking the word naked.

Edit: Stupid me, you said you changed that. Nevermind

I guess I didn't pay enough attention while unlocking things, but now going to make missions I don't seem to see Anti-Matter's portion of the Preatorian's anywhere on the enemies list. Is this do to the fact that unlike the rest of them he should technically only be level 40-45?

I understand what he's trying to say. Making my own custom group. I've resorted to using existing enemies to make up Evil Incorporated in order to save file space. However I don't want an enemy in my group with names like Crey Eliminator or Council Empire something or other.