Part 1 - Part 2 – Part 3 - Part 4 – Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 – Part 8 – Part 9 – Part 10
Epilogue – Addendum
EVE Forum Thread – Chatsubo OOC Thread – EVElopedia Page
A look back at the first of EVE’s Epic Mission Arcs, and my reply to the nay-sayers.
Epic Mission Arc: The Blood-Stained Stars
Epilogue
So there we have it, 50 missions and approximately 80 jumps of travelling later and I’ve finished the first of EVE’s Epic Mission Arcs. I have to say that it was fun, as was producing the 10 part guide linked to at the top of this post, I hope you found it useful.
This is the first time I’ve tried to produce a guide for EVE and it was a learning experience for me. I realise that there are some things that I could have done better, and quite a bit of information that I should have included but didn’t (mainly due to absentmindedness and this being my first attempt).
All your criticisms and comments have been invaluable and I’d like you to keep them coming. If there was a vital peice of data that you think should be include but which I missed let me know and I’ll make sure I gather that data on the next time round (either of this arc or any future arcs).
This arc was truly epic. I’m sure that there are many single player games which don’t provide anywhere near the same amount of playing time as this single arc does. I certainly don’t know of any MMO’s which have quest arcs of similar length.
I’m not going to go into the story or the writing as, to be honestm I didn’t pay that much attention to it. It was something to do with rogue drones, that much I do know. I did feel towards the end that I was taking part in something bigger than myself though, even if it was only in some small way. There was a story there, I’m just in no position to judge whether it was any good or not. I’ll have to pay more attention next time.
Now for some criticisms. Whilst I’m sure that this was as much a learning excercise for the guys in the teams responsible for the Epic Missions at CCP (not Team Epic, confusingly enough, they were doing the AI) there are a few things which I feel could have been done better.
My first minor gripe is that its not made entirely clear at the first branch, which selection is which. You’re given the option between Tracking and Scanning, though the option titles give no indication as to which is which. Its a minor point but even after I’ve finished the arc, I’m still not completely certain of which branch I took (I’m guessing Tracking, but I could be wrong).
Another quibble is that while the rewards for the completion of missions were on the whole greater than those given out in standard missions of comparable level (level 1 Quality 0) more could have been made of the chapter endings and even the very end of the arc itself. I was left with a ‘what? Is that it?’ feeling after the final mission and I wasn’t even expecting anything that spectacular. A ship, a BPC (or BPO, if you’re feeling generous) or maybe even a medal or award of some sort would have been nice. A medal would have been perfect as its something you can show off to your friends and corpmates without it seriously affecting the balance of the game or the economy in any way.
There was also a problem with lag in the main originating system for the arc, namely Arnon. Having the deadspace missions that Sister Alitura (and indeed all the other agents in the arc) gives out located in the same system is probably a mistake that CCP have learned from. This also wasn’t helped by the fact that ther is only one epic arc at present and everyone is rushing to try it out. Anyway, lesson learned CCP, eh?
Finally I thought that the arc was somewhat lacking in set peices. The support from allied faction ships in the penultimate mission was a nice touch but it could have been so much more. Apart from these fairly minor points I feel a good job was done by all and it bodes well for fufure arcs.
Now there have been some comments in the forums expressing dissapointment with the rewards and length of this arc. They seem to feel that they’re not getting what they were promised at Fanfest last year. Namely huge arcs with hundreds of missions, multiple branches, huge storylines and truly epic rewards. To them I say: ‘Be patient’.
This is only the first of the Epic Mission Arcs, and it was tailored towards new players, just out of the re-vamped ‘New Player Experience’ (read tutorials) and still gooey behind the ears from their first pod. This was a trial run, to make sure the tools worked and such an arc could be produced, also to identify potential problems and bottlenecks. Would you rather they had rushed out a huge level 4 arc with the release of Apocrypha without ironing the kinks out of the system first? I thought not, let them use the new players as guinea-pigs so they can get it perfect for all you experienced mission runners out there, because we all know how picky the experience EVE player is. (Except me, I’m one of the few zen EVE players out there who accepts EVE for what it is and appreciates the the hard work that has gone into making it the unique experience it is, warts, lag, balance issues and all 
).
Thats it from me for now, comments and stuff in the usual places. I’m open to suggestions for what to do till the nest arc appears (which I’m also planning to write a guide for).
Till next time, fly safe and good hunting.
