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Posts
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Joined
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My nomination for a one mission arc is:
Don't Freak (Customs Version): 384769 - @Gypsy Rose
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Name: A Hero in Need...is a Friend Indeed!
Arc ID: 375018
Creator Global Name: @Wrong Number
Synopsis You are new to the hero game so the private message the granddaddy of Paragon City heroes, Statesman, asking to see you was a pleasant surprise. That's a sure sign you are moving up though you wonder what he could possibly want from an apprentice hero such as yourself. No matter what it is, its sure to raise your hero profile.
Difficulty Level: Easy
Number of EB/AVS 0
Level Range 5-14
Story Type Mystery
Villain Groups Circle of Thorns, Council, Hellions and Custom
Mission Count: - 5
Estimated Time to Play About 45 minutes -
Near full team today. We ran the following:
Headhunters -- An OPA Adventure by @Grammar Merchant Arc ID: 353468
The End of Saturday Mornings by @Zamuel Arc ID: 386240
Note - Be sure to check out MCM's review of An OPA Adventure above.
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We were in overflow mode today and split into two teams. The teams ran these arcs:
Caveat Emptor by @ojin m Arc ID: 385510
Don't Freak by @Gypsy Rose Arc ID: 384767
Invasion on Earth BX1132! by @ARH Arc ID: 98943
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A hearty congratulations PW! Well deserved.
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Thanks for playing it!
Quote:It was a break in at a private (secret) storage unit. I feel that making it larger would not really make any sense considering what it is suppose to be and that it would add nothing to the story.Just played this one of yours and gave it 4 starsVery enjoyable arc and gave the right amount of xp/tickets imo. Would have been 5 stars but i felt like the first mission was a bit too small and simple, all the rest were great though.
Quote:Bug though on the cargo ship map, the boss who turns on you wouldn't fight me, just ran at me and let me hit him.
As for the boss. there are bugs in MA and weird stuff can on occasion happen (never heard of this one in 95 plays). Nothing I, or any other author can do about it, except be annoyed when it happens
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Quote:You may not have noticed in my "A Hero in Need..." thread, but I had this exact issue too since CoT appear in the first mission of that arc. I found a great work around to it. I created a "custom" group named "Circle of Thorns" and placed all of the standard CoT into it except for the nasty ghosties. I then changed from the Standard CoT to the "Custom" CoT in all the required places in the arc and voila CoT up to level 14 with no ghosts. I was then able to rasie the arc level to 14 across the board. This change took very little or no space.Changes made as a result of feedback:
* Raised the level range to 5-12 (was 5-10), due to the contest being over and multiple feedbacks complaining that the level was too low. This is admittedly a pretty small level bump; I originally wanted to raise the cap to 14 (the Skulls maximum), but in testing I found that 12 is the highest I could raise the level cap before CoT would start spawning ghosts, who I think are a little too nasty for lowbies to fight (due to their debuffs).
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A few updates to this arc since the contest ended and from feedback.
- Created a "custom" Circle of Thorns group with the standard character's minus the Spectral Demons and Knights. It became apparent very quickly upon testing the level bump that these are way too tough for 10 and lower.
- Higher end of the arc's level range bumped from 10 to 14.
- Updated Fredrick and Zamuel's looks with a little recolor to help them stand out a bit more.
- Minor typo corrected.
- Put a an extra little something in something's description.
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Only Fred and I this evening, but did that stop us? Now way! We ran a few from the current PC award nominees:
Jabberwocky by @Rodion Arc ID: 1573
The Extadine Lab by @Vanden Arc ID: 2595
Becky's Revenge by @New Age Ronin Arc ID: 60197
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I have a few arcs in your level range (see the link below to a full list of my arcs). The most popular currently in your range in The Golden Age Secret of the Paragon Society which is obviously a golden age type story. If that is not up your alley, try one of the others that sounds good to you. Hope you enjoy whatever you choose.
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Mine are:
2220 - Trademark Infringement Save Paragon City from being sued out of existence!
2019 - Have a Blap, Blap, Blappy Day Kids! Solve a beloved kids TV hosts disappearance.
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Well, I was sick as a dog all day Saturday and Sunday so not only did I miss most of the double exp, I missed the MA Super Team this week. My husband was there on Saturday and told me the following were played:
A South Side Story #49035
Dhahaba Kingdom and the Indelible Curse of Hate #367872
I am not sure if the team ran on Sunday or not.
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I just realized that I forgot to post on Tuesday. We had four people show up and ran:
The Hero of Kings Row by @Circuit Boy Arc ID: 230187
Note - I am planning on having the MA Super Team's normal team times on Saturday and Sunday unless people would rather do other stuff during 2x weekend.
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You may be typing it in wrong. It is "MA Arc Finder" without the quotes.
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When I think about what power sets to use for customs I always first think about the level of the arc. This is especially true for enemies with MEZ powers.
Below level 10 I stick with immobilizes and maybe sleep on a single enemy
Level 11-20 I pepper in some of the other Mez powers, but never double up on them (two enemies with the same set).
21-up I would use just about any power, but again not doubling up.
MEZ powers I won't use: Confuse - People hate this power and it falls into what I call "stand around and wait " powers.
Speaking of "stand around and wait " powers others that fall into this category Glue Arrow, Siphon Speed followed by other slows. My personal least favorite power on customs: Smoke. UGH. Talk about stand around and wait.
"Too many" powers are the ones that are not so bad until they get stacked on. A good example of this is debuffs. Ever fight a group of CoT Spectral Demons and Knights? Dreadful. (As a side note these appear at level 12 and up. If you are doing a CoT mission that is rated below level 20 I recommend removing them). Another of these are healing powers. A heal on a boss, OK. A heal on a room full of minions, not OK. Same with Nova type powers.
Powers I just plain avoid, besides Confuse are self Rezes, Build UP, Aim, Unstoppable and other similar effect powers.
These are basic off the top of my head guidelines I use, but that's not to say you can't find a way to bend the rules here and there. Also, there is no way to perfectly balance for every possible power combo a player may have.
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I think that is happening with the GR release and not before.
As for arcs I may revisit, Trademark Infringement for certain. I originally had to trim down the Wannabe group and roll the hero characters into it to get a nice mix (though on occasion you still can get a lower count mix).
Death to Disco! is also close to being maxed out even though it is only two missions. Since that was the case, I only had one minion, Lt. and boss in the Rockers which is an allied group that only appears in battles. After a lot of feedback, I moved all the Rockers to minions because most of the time people only got to see the minion from the group making it kinda blandish. The problem with this is when groups play the arc the Rockers will often lose since they have no boss on their side. Not a big deal, but I will be expanding that group too when I can.
As for my other arcs, it is doubtful I would want to change anything in them, except there are a few spots in my arc's briefing where I could use another 100 characters. I am not sure however if the bump to 200k means more space for text in each section.
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Today, a near full team and two arcs. They were:
Hell's Wedding. by @Vypir Arc ID: 365750
Turg Fiction: IX by @Turgenev Arc ID: 351787
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Full team, three plus hours of MA fun. We played:
The Hidden Agenda [Agent Six Task Force] by @Master Koga Arc ID: 356334
Ares Strike Force by @Nylonus Arc ID: 356041
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OK, I think maybe my spoiler warning has discouraged some people from commenting on the arc here. So, here is some of the feedback I have received minus the spoilers. Anyone wanting to comment here, please feel free to use this anti-spoiler format or one of your own.
@Arctic Princess wrote: I loved this arc! I was a bit skeptical in the BLANKITY- BLANK mission until I realized what was going on and the final mission was lovely. I especially liked the careful mixing of BLANK and BLANK into BLANK’S BLANKS.
5 stars!
@One Eyed Jack wrote: Really cool and tricky. I did it on my level 4-5 scrapper with no problems. Thanks for making this arc.
@Kradror wrote: Very interesting story, nice take on an old idea
@Dot Communist wrote: Very nicely done - excellent use of customs, good choices of maps. Excellent use of color in the clues and mission text.
@Aracade wrote: Nice... very nice... awesome Arc. I am a person of few words to I wil stick to the simple ones. It is a great arc and a nice plot.
@Zamuel wrote: It was a pleasant surprise in what I thought was "just" an in-joke arc had a nice plot to round it out.
@Sister Twelve wrote: Conceptually I think this arc is very cool.
@SupaNerd wrote: I suspected something BLANK at the beginning of mission 3. Seemed to know the BLANK of all the BLANK with no care to the known BLANK were BLANKED there.
@Sumerian wrote: Great arc, a sure winner
@DarklordDKL wrote: Excellent! Awesome BLANK on a pretty restrictive contest theme!
@Beyond Reach wrote: Very amusing
@TheDeepBlue wrote: Neat!
@Heraclea wrote: Statesman is an irresistible target, isn't he? I think you hit the right tone of stuffiness for him.
@Gypsy Rose wrote: Great arc as usual! Loved the BLANK. Five stars.
@StonePower wrote: nice mission indeed
@MrCaptainMan wrote: 5-stars! Woohoo!
@StratoNexus wrote: I thought the premise for having the BLANK avoid BLANK was thin, and then I found out BLANK. :-) I loved your use and portrayal of the BLANK.
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I am very happy for any improvements or additions to MA so these are appreciated. The function I would most like to see would be the ability to pick exact spawn points.
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This evening we had four people show up. Many were getting in those last minute touches to their challenge arcs no doubt.
We played:
Punk 'n' Pie by @DesdinovaB Arc ID: 148487
Magic Carpet Ride by @Captain VaIor Arc ID:
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Samuraiko,
Thanks for the nicely formatted list. It helped me find a couple of the entries that I had missed.
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