twelfth

What is Frankenslotting?

It is awesome.

Some of the characterization was probably because of the fact that Lackey was using an old character from her novels as a contact. Since I've actually not read any of her novels, I have to assume that the contact is just being consistent in her characterization in those novels. Setting aside the fact that Ms. Lackey is literally my dear ol' mother's brand of SF, there's nothing in this character that would say, "Boy it'd be great to read 200-300 pages of this person!"

Regardless, the acerbic bitchiness of the contact was grating. I was really hoping that I'd have a chance to smash in the face of Unbelieveable Man (the hero the contact is repeatedly trying to replace you with) just to prove myself better than him. I also vaguely conjectured that the contact herself was Unbelieveable Man's "needy girlfriend" that was eating up all of his time (and whom was probably hiding from her).

Otherwise, the arc was meh. A Scooby Doo tribute with some light humor. I had some difficulty with it as I was running a psi/MM blaster (set to +1/x1, boss ON) and the BP mobs are resistant to Psi. The MM/ critters were also highly annoying, particularly the final EB. After losing the ally in the final mission, I had to call in a friend to help me take out the boss. With a full rank of Necro Pets against me, it was pretty much going to be impossible without someone who can do a different type of damage.

I think I gave it a 3. 4 at most.

Actually, River, that sounds as good as we've got so far for serious plotting recommendations. What mechanics were you trying to get to work?

By the Way, the MA: Stories and Lore forum has a thread put up for feedback on the arcs themselves.

*slight nudge for forumers to see the other arcs on the forum*

Nonetheless, if the Community/Co-Op authoring thing does go on, here's my suggestion (after BackFire) for the necessary positions:

Director: Them that organizes all of the logistical issues of the project. Deadlines, announcements to community, requests assistance from community, contacts the CoX Dev team (if necessary), and ultimately presents the finished project [Honestly it looks like BackFire might have this position already].

Plotting: Someone responsible for the general "thrust" of the arc and probably outlining the major events that occur in the arc. Can be the same as any of the writing positions, or even the editor/proofreader.

Head writer: Best responsible for the main briefing/debriefing, essential clues/details in the mission.

Assistant writers: Brainstorming, character bios, critter design, physical adding of the details into the MA interface (these are the workhorses of the design). Recommend no more than two of these folks.

Proofreader: A proofreader looks at typos, grammar errors, etc. Not content of the story - just the bones of the language. This can be the same as the Editor but doesn't necessarily have to be. The Proofreader has to be very good though, and best to not be one of the active writers [since a distanced eye is best for spotting errors].

Editor: This person deals with the story. Does it make sense? Is it in canon (if that matters)? Are there plot holes or logical inconsistencies. Is the story enjoyable, and does it accomplish what it sets out to do?

Hosting: I'd suggest the Director, just as a "reward" for wrangling these cats.

Play testers: This is best populated by the Director posting on the forums when the testing will be done and telling people to show up on X Server on Y date/time, at Z AE Building. Probably best to have more than one team leader available with the test-ready arc, in the case of multiple teams (or the need for smaller teams to test difficulty, etc)

I don't think a Map designer, Mechanics expert, or costume designer is necessary. That's stuff that can be handled by one of the non-head writers. If you aren't well familiar with how the maps work or how to execute mechanics either don't sign up or come to the community with questions. We don't need that many cooks in the kitchen.

Right now BackFire has suggested that a premise be developed by Feb 5, 2010. I'd recommend that all positions be filled by Feb 8, 2010 (except playtest).

I'm vaguely leaning toward the competition idea, simply because coordination of effort on a single product is hard enough when you have everyone in the same room, but I'd really despair of having anything competently completed over the internet - particularly using the MA. You're talking about several authors, likely on different servers, attempting to communicate clearly and without misunderstanding, using an interface that does not welcome cooperation.

IMO, in the amount of time it takes to hammer out all the logistical details of who is lead writer/developer, gathering/brainstorming ideas, avoiding/participating in/defusing ego conflicts, and collating all the work product from various contributors - the same number of people could be well on the way to creating a number of good arcs ready for publishing and peer review.

Thanks for the review folks, I put in my responses in TF: Mutternacht's thread. It was very kind of you to take a look at it. I feel a little bad that I didn't clear spoilers, since it was obvious you guys really wanted to engage the plot issues. I don't feel bad at all about the 3 star rating. The emotional response was so intense that as an author I really can't ask for more out of a player.

Well, I got a mixed review from the folks at AEntertainment Tonight, which is not unwelcome. Net rating of 4 stars, which is as much as anyone can really ask for. You can go here and download the Jan 24, 2010 show. TF: Mutternacht is discussed around beginning the 36:05 mark and goes for about ten minutes or so.

In response to the comments raised in the arc:

* Heroic Label: Since I submitted this for the Doc Aeon Challenge, I set the labels as FINAL and HEROIC because I believed those two to be required in order to get the arc entered as a qualified submission. It is, as we have seen, not in a final state and really, Neutral would probably fit the arc better. I'll be updating the arc to place it in Neutral alignment status.

* Costume Disclaimer - The first mission (the Malta mission) was a late addition to the arc. Originally you were told very quickly about the Dystheist's costume, which I figured could let people sorta jump out of AE for a moment and make a costume if they wanted to. I can't presently think of an elegant way to tell players to "go make a villain costume" prior to when it comes up in the arc, at least without spoilering that bit of plot progression.

* CANON DEFILEMENT: First off, I'm totally not offended by the commentary. Other reviews, the playtesting on this arc, I've gotten these comments before. I've come to accept that some people will have very strong negative reactions to the way the story plays out. The arc is tagged as non-canon, the players are welcome to ignore it for the purposes of how they feel their PC would act.

Worse comes to worse, the story is just an attempt to do something creative. If all it can do is to elicit a strong reaction in the audience and make them think a bit about their assumptions, their beliefs, and how they approach the themes that CoX engages - there's nothing more I could ask from an audience or player. =D

Well tried again once I got home and made the single edit I was trying to make, but I'll let it settle down before doing serious work on anything.

Um, did VV just break hardcore? I was trying to update my user page and after one minor edit posting, I couldn't post any more edits ("save changes" would just bump me to the "preview" page). I tried logging out and then was told that my account doesn't exist any more?! I know it's been a while since I updated anything, but did I just get banned? I did get an unexpected popup after the first edit requesting name/pass again - I didn't look at it long enough to see what it was.

Tried going to the VV Forums, but since I haven't posted there in even longer, I had no idea what my password was (or which ancient email account I used to set it up). any help here?

btw, VV user name is same as here

I think BackFire's was a winner for me, but Korith's is definitely solid. Gratz!

Contrary to popular imageboard macros, 8 < D.

Gratz, Pheonyx!

Also, the zone is the home for the Imperious Task Force, a co-op TF which is probably one of the quicker, least complicated, and proportionately rewarding* TF/SFs for a redsider to run.

Four years is quite a while, but welcome back to the game. You'll notice a LOT of changes.

* Using the new Merit Reward system, which will take some getting used to.

Cimerora is a new co-op zone available for toons 35+. You can get to it by going through the Midnighter Club Entrance in Cap Au Diable. You'll have to run a short arc in order to get access to the club, however.

Sister Airlia is standing on the outcropping of land to the west of the cave where you enter the zone.

The Ocho and friends would like to remind players that displaying the "Shocker" gesture for the "Pocket D Ski Slope FunTime Cam" is a conduct violation of the Terms of Agreement.

Bunny Ears still acceptable.

If you're set on losing a travel power, I'll lightly mention that ninja run + siphon speed is basically equivalent to super speed for travel (although without the +stealth inherent in SprSpd), with some jumping (with more speed or jump depending if you go swift vs. hurdle). But don't disregard what Vernon says above.

Gratz, Tangler. It's cool to see that some of the other arcs originally designed for the Dr. Aeon Challenge are also getting DC's.

Also, if you have a slot to play around with here or there, I dropped the devastation Proc for hold in my charged bolts. Due to the higher recharge rates, you'll see if pop off reasonably frequently. Not bad for PVE.

I've played a elec/kin corr straight to 50, and might be one of the faster toons I've gotten there. It is my first kinetics toon, my gushing on it might just be the fact that kinetics rawks out, but I didn't mind it.

Yeah, the damage component isn't OMGWTFBBQUBER, but what elec/kin does have is a lot of versatility. You can switch around playstyles pretty easily. With /kin you're going to be welcome on pretty much any team, so you can leave the heavy lifting of damage dealing to the brutes (and /kin = brutecandy). The powerset also solos pretty well, with a pretty quick single target hold to lock down troublesome LTs or minions (Sappers, Nullifers, Tsoo Sorcerers, etc), and then the normal soft controls (slows). The elec powers also have a (small) change for a (brief) hold-like recharge killer - its not much to look at but at low levels solo, you'll probably be scraping through a few tough fights due to those times the recharge crash clicks on a mob.

Don't discount the sapping aspect of elec/kin, either. Sapping is what is going to get your toon through any solo EB fights without having to suck down ridiculous amounts purples or expensive IO slotting. If they can't fire off their high-end powers, they can't hurt you as badly. By the way, remember that your heal has a -end effect to it, I added that to the slotting to help with the sapping at low levels.

As far as Mu Mastery goes, I'm sorta iffy on it. Power Sink is great on a corr that doesn't already have sapping potential or end recovery powers. Elec/kin already has inherent sapping from attacks and by the time you get to 41 in order to get Power Sink, you already have Transference. Transference is more reliable, recharges MUCH faster, and uses way less end (I think transference is like a 2-4 end cost, powersink is something dumb like 10). If you're out of end, transference usually doesn't give you all of your end back, but it gives most of it. Power sink can get to full in a reasonably sized mob, but you have that larger end cost to start off. And then you have 30-60 seconds until you can fire it again. In that time you could have fired off transference several times over.

Conserve power isn't bad, of course, and comes in handy on really grindy or AV fights. Electric Shackles is nearly useless even on someone who doesn't have a decent single target hold (ES is more end, worse recharge). Pets are pets, so if you like them run on with it (although you already have one with the Volt Sentinel). I've got Charged Armor, but I don't know the numbers well enough to know if its a worthwhile choice. Mostly my toon has Mu Mastery for character concept reasons rather than the numbers.

I might be wrong, but doesn't putting the Performance Shifter Proc in a targetable power actually give End to the power's target (i.e. an enemy)? If so, you might want to drop it out of your power sink & transference.

Just remember, the last Rikti War succeeded because of surprise and lack of preparation.

So, the Rikti got a skirmish last time. We're properly prepared now.

((/em knuckles))

Bring on the Shovelheads.