PapaSlade

I am taking Turgenev's suggestion and starting "The List". I know a lot of people have a thread just for their entry or posted their entry somewhere in Dr. Aeon's original thread. So let's get them all in one spot. Please, just list the Arc info and maybe a short blurb so we can all see what we were up against and hopefully get to play them all. Save the discussion for the individual threads.

I will start off. My entry was Judge, Jury and Crimson Arc ID 352363

All I will say is Agent Crimson thinks he knows what the single greatest threat to Paragon City is and he wants you to actually do something about it.

I have a list cobbled together of 14 arcs people said were entered. I have played 6 so far. I do not have authors written down for all of them so if I get time to look them up I may be able to post that list. Until then post away!

Morning ArrowRose, still a little groggy this morning but let me see what I can address.

1.) My "not enough" comment regarding the intro to your contact was more about the concept of doing it that way not being enough to get the average player to buy into the story. Of course I have no idea if the average player is even looking at MA. I like the attempt and the writing is fine. I do not think it is something that must be changed. I just think it puts you in the position of asking a lot from your player right off the bat. If they don't feel enough attachment to the contact they will not have that much interest in what the contact wants them to do. The attachment here is almost more to Allura than Goodheart and we never see Allura.

2.) I get the symbolism and symbolism is great but the devs do not give us alot of space to really give those symbols meaning. The "sin" of being a rich man may not be a sin to many players. I understand that the player's character is being brainwashed but the player isn't. If they have not given themselves up to that, then they have no reason to do anything to Mr. Richman. Again, you ask a lot of your player here.

I am going to break from actually talking about the story for a second here. I have a feeling I am going to use "You are asking a lot from your player", well...a lot, when discussing this arc. THAT IS NOT A BAD THING. I think you are aiming high and that is great. I come to the MA to get away from some of the in game material, especially blue side, that just reads "blah, blah, blah go beat up some Trolls/Outcasts/whatever" Just remember that they have the right to ask for a little something back.

The symbolism and idea for this story are good. For me, and I may very well be in the minority on this, the symbolism here sorta hangs there like a balloon and I am looking for the string that makes me want to reach up and grab it.

3.) Give us an inkling into how Mr. Goodman is brainwashing heroes. Heroes are usually written as strong willed people. Mr. Goodman needs to be persuasive and powerful for a player to want to give over their character to serve him. I think you are shooting for this a little bit in you dialogue for some of the PPD in the breakout but a player may not get close enough to trigger that dialogue. It needs to come from Goodman. I don't know if there is a way to have some of the PPD closest to him actually fight for him. Maybe a battle between two PPD groups as you arrive. I am not sure how best to handle this.

4 & 6.) I think you have chosen a difficult subject to work with in choosing brainwashing. We see none of the stripping away of the old person to create the new controlled person. I think this goes back to making Mr. Goodman a more substantial character. I have not done the reading or research on the topic that you have so I am afraid I am not much help here.

The mechanics available for your fourth mission also hurt what you are trying to do by forcing you to mix brainwashed and non-brainwashed mobs that work to break your continuity. I hope someone with more technical expertise will look at this and have some advice for a way around this.

5.) I am saying there needs to be a 5th mission. Our hero has broken free of the brainwashing of Mr. Goodman. Now, how far will our hero go to fix the damage that has been done? Will they hurt a brainwashed hero to stop them from killing? If its Statesman or Ms. Liberty, they probably will. Those characters are true symbols to the people of Paragon and their loss could turn the tide in the favor of evil. For "the greater good" you would likely sacrifice the lesser hero for the greater.

If you wanted to get away from the contest a little, I would make the list of targets be Mr. Goodman's competition. Then your hero has a real dilemma. Do they allow a fellow hero to murder a murderer, risking the psyche of their fellow hero having to live with the act but getting an evil person off the street or does your hero risk killing a fellow hero to prevent the crime from happening? I think you can have an excellent Arc either way.

Papa Slade

Ok, I'm back and have played the arc. The arc has potential. The skeleton is there but for me it just needs more meat on the bones, so to speak. Unfortunately, my reviewing skills are not in the league of LaserJesus, Bubbawheat and Venture. I lack the technical expertise of those folks, so what I can provide is much more based on a "feel" for things. I apologize for any spoilers to anyone that has not played the arc yet.

I guess that's a spoiler alert!

1.) The introduction does a nice job of trying to give the player a justification for believing in your contact. I just don't think it is enough. Telling me I know a person who knows this person feels much different than running Levantera's arc and getting introduced to Serpent Drummer, for example. There is just more of a relationship built that lends to the trust you are trying to instill for your contact.

2.) We need to know more about Mr. Richman. All the information on him is just too vague. Billionaire rich, some sort of a connection to the Family...go steal his money and kidnap his daughter. I am not saying my hero is above robbing from the rich to give to the poor. Errol Flynn's Robin Hood is one of my favorite movies, but it was well established that Prince John and the Sheriff of Nottingham were bad dudes. Mr. Richman? Not so much. Is he a slum lord? drug dealer? maybe he sells conflict diamonds or beats baby seals and sells their pelts. Just give me something to work with and I will happily run off and rob the guy. Good guys will do bad things to bad guys as long as they can justify in their heads that the bad guy deserved it or there was no other way. Ok, to wordy, I will move on.

3.) Mr. Goodman could use some attention as well. I think he has potential as a character but needs to be deeper. A hint as to his true goals or a little history on him somewhere. You appear to be going for a cult leader status in Mr. Goodman. As is, he is a bit of cardboard cut out bad guy, but could be much more.

4.) The mind control thing, how does our plucky contact get out from under Mr. Goodman's control and if she never does, than who is leaving the notes? Especially if there is no cure or way to reverse the mind control as the file on the computer states.

5.) Where is the last mission?!?!? The opportunity to really push the envelope on how far you can push a hero is in the list of assassination targets that Mr. Goodman has on him. How far will the hero go to stop those assassinations? Who are the targets. What if Mr. Goodman is trying to off his competition and they are all murdering scum? Are they actually worth saving if you have to hurt/kill another hero to do it? Is it evil to not stop the murder of a murderer? I think the gold to be mined in this arc is in the mission you have yet to write.

6.) Last thing and this is really my only serious problem with the story. I do not understand why half the greater good was fighting on my side and the rest wanted to kill me in the last mission. No clue what so ever what was going on there especially when they fight Mr. Goodman's mob with me. That goes back to the whole brainwash/mind control issue and how are they not under the bad guys control?

As far as the missions working, other than that bit of mob weirdness in the last one, they all worked for me. So there you have it. Please take everything I stated in a good light. I think the potential for a very compelling story is in there and I am sure you can bring it out. I am sure there will be other opinions. This was just mine. I hope it helps.

Papa Slade

I am so on this...as soon as I do some packing for my upcoming vacation. The wife will kill me if I don't get something done on that front. Soon as I am done with that I am playing your arc.

There will be no quitting from you ArrowRose. I will not allow it.

Seriously, I graduated college almost 20 years ago. I have put pen to paper for something other than a work report, something that was for the pure enjoyment of writing and having an idea of my own, exactly once since then. I have been pulling levers and moving massive amounts of dirt with giant tonka toys my entire adult life. My computer skills suck compared to most 6th graders. If this old heavy equipment operator can sit here and hunt-n-peck his way through trying to put out a story and try to figure out how this MA thing actually works, then you have to stick it out too!

On a side note, your comment about people stating "you hijacked my hero" makes me think perhaps you are writing to the wrong audience. Being a villain player most of my years here, my thought is that if the heroes hate what you are making them do then the villains might actually enjoy it. Just an idea.

Oh, and keep a bag of pretzels handy when reading any reviews/comments. That way you always have a grain of salt handy to take with any criticism. That's my plan. Unless of course it's Venture, then just go grab the whole salt shaker.

After going back and checking, I have no idea if my submission even got played. I am sure I submitted correctly but all of the plays are accounted for with comments from people I know played the mission.

There needs to be some sort of system to acknowledge an entry was received and played. I completely understand that Dr. Aeon may not have time to write and post a full review of every entry, but a simple "Hi, just played your entry." might be enough to set people's minds at ease that they didn't waste their time and they at least had a chance. No matter how slim that chance may have been.

Congrats to Minimalist! I will definately add this to the "to Play" list as I am still working through some of the other entries as well.

I also want to thank the Doc for presenting the contest and for reviving my interest in the MA.

Oh, and I second Turgenev's interest in feedback or a "higlight reel".

Can't wait for the next one!

From what I have seen here and talking to some folks in game I think we can get enough people to give this a go. More details to follow. Again any suggestions/help is welcome and greatly appreciated.

I second much of the above, especially Lord Mayhem's and all the stuff he seconded. I would like to add the map with the ship in dry dock where you fight the Sea Witch. I believe you get that from Bocor.

We also need outdoor Cimerora maps. I would like to see all of them from the ITF as well as the main island as it's own outdoor map. I have a mission I want to write but it takes you to Corsica and I have no town to use. The little section of town from Croatoa doesn't quite cut it.

Various outdoor dock configurations from Independence Port and Cap/Sharkhead would be nice and, as mentioned numerous times, the outside cargo ship to inside cargo ship transitions.

I do not know how difficult it is to take existing zone areas and wall them off for outdoor maps but there are tons of great areas that could be used like this. The Freakshow towns in Shark and Creys Folley, the Arachnos dig site in Faultline, the Abyss/Monster Island and The Fab in Grandville are just the ones off the top of my head.

Also if there isn't one, we need a sewers to abandoned tech base map and if there is one can someone point it out for me because I couldn't find one.

My wife works very late many nights and is often the last to leave her office. The keys in the hand like claws idea mentioned earlier is something I drilled into her head. Especially that nice long ignition key. Planting that thing in the eyes/throat will give many a thug pause, that and the fact she can kick like a mule makes me feel a little better, but not much. I still insist she call when she is on her way to the car no matter how late and how long I have been asleep.

Glad to hear you are well Leandro. Don't let the incident change the way you live and if it feels like it is definately talk to someone about it. These things can creep into the back of people's minds and really change how they live.

Well after much himmin-an-hawwin I decided to try this thing out. My entry is:

Judge, Jury and Crimson

Arc ID #352363

bit of a rookie at this so feedback and tips would be greatly appreciated.

Hello Triumph,

Some folks might know me most probably do not. I have made Triumph my home since starting the game about the time CoV came out. I love the server because of the peeps I have met over the years. So, I come to the people of Triumph with a question. I am thinking about starting a Tanker Tuesday style event here on Triumph only not with Tanks, and not Blueside. What I am proposing is: Arachnos' Friday Night Jamboree & Hootenanny!

This would be an all VEAT event. All VEAT teams doing TF's, VEAT Arcs, random missions, whatever. What I need to know is how much interest there would be in an event like this? Who would be willing to help lead teams? Who would be willing to help in general? What times work best?(I am a central time zone player). I am thinking the first Friday of each month but open to suggestions.

Ok, that's several questions, but you get the idea. So let me know what you think.

Papa Slade

From what was said last night, I believe TT comes to Victory next week Sir Zane. If I am incorrect I am sure someone more in the know will correct me. As usual, it was a fun run last night, although two straight weeks of Malta on a PI safeguard with a sub-level 12 Tank is a little masochistic, even for me. I really need to get at least a temp travel power before I bring a baby tank to one of these.

For anyone that has not tried a Tanker Tuesday, I am only about a month into doing these regularly and it is one of the most enjoyable things I have come across in my almost 4 years playing. Kudos to the dedicated folks that run these events.

Let's see if I can do this from memory:

Mr. Brownstone - Stone/Fire Brute
Moria Slade - Fire/Rad Corruptor (first to 50)
Cassandra Slade - Mind/Energy Dom
Sebastion Slade - Night Widow (fastest to 50, all melee build and a blast to play)
Hannibal Slade - Dark/Fire Brute
Murder Machine - Super Strength/Electric Brute
Darkhold Disciple - Energy/Dark Stalker

Still only one blue side...I need to get my archery blaster that last half a level she has needed for 6 months now, then I will have 2.

I really appreciate the input. I swear I tried switching them the day I tried everything else under the sun, but when I logged in the next day and tried that, it worked. Of course on my second test after getting that to work, 2 glowies apparently spawned on the same point. I clicked once, counter went off, glowie number was reduced by one but the glowie continued to blink. I could not click it again and there were no others to be found. I know the MA is a stripped down version of what the devs get to work with but if it has half the quirks the MA has I really do not envy them...as much.

Can someone please tell me how to get object collections to spawn properly. Most of the discussion my search-fu produced on the topic was from back before the maps had spawn points. Am I the only one still having this problem??

I have been working on a story for weeks now and cannot get this to work. I have compromised on the structure of two of the missions because the object simply refuses to spawn in the "back" position. One map has 5 allowable back spawns for collections (either type), I only want one but it always spawns in the middle. I gave up and just left it as is, happy it was spawning at all, but I need the last mish to work

My last mish is a 4 floor tech map. It has a rescue, take to computer (chained) objective that works perfectly on the front spawn points. Then there should be four bombs to plant that spawn as middles. The last floor has a second rescue/take to object that should spawn in the back positions. The Bombs spawn in the final (back) room everytime and the object tied to the rescue spawns at a middle point, forcing a backtrack.

I have changed maps (a couple times). Switched the last object from floor to wall. Tried making the last objective a destructable instead of a collection. Nothing works. The bombs spawn in the last room everytime. If I had any hair left I would have pulled it all out.

I have had the highest hopes for MA since before it was finally released and still do to this day. I admit, I spent a lot of time working on stories in those first couple months but walked away from it for a while to allow time for some things to get ironed out. I think there have been a great many improvements and Dr. Aeon's appointment has pulled me back into the creator, but I am at my wits end. I really want this thing to work, in the worst way. Right now I would just be happy if the little green, white, and red dots would do what they say they do. Is it too much to ask???

Absofreakinlutely yes I would do this!

And, to be honest, I think there should be a team per server. I always sorta considered the servers alternate in game realities and it would open it up to more people. It would be more work to immortalize different teams but well worth it I believe.

The tough call would be who to send on such a mission...my Stone/Fire Brute, Mr. Brownstone, has been around over 3 years now and would probably jump at a chance to join the biggest scrap in history. He wouldn't do it to "save the world" he would do it to prove to himself that he would be the last man standing and then take as many of the Rikti or whatever with down him.

There can never be enough "epic" in a game like this. Stuff like Mothership Raids, the ambushes at the end of full team runs of the Ice Mistral and Sharkhead TF's (I always stay and fight to the death even if everyone else hits exit immediately), beating up everything on an ITF. I just love stuff where the enemies just keep coming in droves and trying to stem the tide.

So, again, absofreakinlutely!!

I can make it again tonight but will have to bail at some point to pick the wife up from work. What time we starting? I will hit Triumph Watch 2.0 err 2.1 (whichever one I belong to), and get the word out.

I have to say Tanker Tuesday on Triumph was a good time and I even got there well over an hour late. Managed to get in on most of a long freakshow smash fest with an AV to boot and still got over a level on my lvl 28 shield/mace.

I have always struggled playing tanks. I played almost all of my first 3 years playing red side so brutes were my cup o tea. Tanks just always seemed disappointing in the damage department and I would delete them well before lvl 20. This made me want to try some more. Already made a Dark armor/ electric on Justice. No room in Triumph on my two accounts, now I have to come up with one for Champion.

You may have a convert.

I hear BaBs as Ron Perlman, Synapse as Chris Tucker, Blue Steele is Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Westin Phipps sounds like Stephen Colbert and for some reason I always hear Wiggy the Brit as Eddie Izzard.

Lady Grey comes across to me as Kate Blanchett

Fusionette was the dearly departed Anna Nicole Smith but I don't hear dead people so now she sounds like Pam Anderson.

Oh, and if somebody is getting Angelina Jolie's voice it has to be Silver Mantis...

I should be on and available for that one...I hope to be on around 7-7:30 pm eastern.

Probably on Lasershock, one of my blasters, but I am sure I have a couple of toons that need to run that one.

My "City of" life started on Triumph red side over 3 years ago and I still love playing there. Three Quarters of all my toons are Triumph Red side. Lots of good players that are willing to help people. Join the global channels and enjoy.

hmmmm...this actually sounds kinda fun. I have an Arch/devices blaster that I might be able to use as is, but could always dual build for this if need be, and I was gonna make an arch/TA corr anyway. Me likey this idea.