Arctic_Princess

Last night, at 22:30 hours, I dinged 50 with Raidar. He's my 4th. I was a little shocked but very pleasantly surprised to find a wonderful team of people doing the Praetorian arc. It took me, oh, about 4 missions to get from 49.4 to 50 and I had extreme fun - especially versus Mother Mayhem and Malaise.

Now, I know I have been quite vocal about my distaste of farming and powerlevelling but *gasp* on my previous run to 50 I started to get bored of the run from about 42 to 47 - it seemed every time I went to Cimerora or RWZ people were either just finishing the TFs there or had just started. I tried gathering teams for the Praetorian arc but never managed that many. So, I ended up farming! *another gasp*.

I found it dull. Very dull. So my main objection to farming is that *I* don't like it. I have noticed from my posts this week that I have been a little overzealous on the anti-farming thing: It's been borne mainly out of frustration that the MA 'seems' to be full of farms which are scoring higher than a lot of very good arcs I've played. No, not *my* arcs but other people's.

So I would like to apologise firstly for being high and mighty.

Secondly I'm announcing that I would like to run a bit of a competition for the MA (I will post another thread accordingly on the MA section) - it will take the form of MA challenges: I am happy to fund the first one (in terms of inf etc) and there will be criteria for mission creating. It's meant as a bit of fun but I find that, like Recluse, competition breeds strength! In this case though it will hopefully be creative strength.

But why? Why must you have purples?

There's still no actual explanation for it!

If the level cap were some ridiculous figure and everything you faced could mez/two-shot you then perhaps I'd see the point but it just seems like farming is for the purpose of getting phat lewt, a la WoW etc, and then doing even more mindless farming and grinding to get a toon from 1-50 in the blink of an eye.

And too right I'm tetchy.

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Too much farming hang on how many of you have played mmorpgs since they were releashed . I know i have and Farming has been around since the start moaning about it is not going to stop it happening .We/they find a way and to be honest i hate doing something over and over .But thats the way these games are to get anything you want or need , for your characters you are going to have to farm yourself .Otherwise you wont obtain anything

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Obtain what? Shiny purples? And then what? Phat Lewt? And then what? For chrissakes if the attitude of 'I need to be on God Mode 24/7 - or else I can't play the game' is the real reason for farming then go play 'Barbie Race and Ride'. I hear there isn't the faintest possibility of failing that game...

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todays patches I think are to fix SG bases

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Removal of exploitable issues ingame are never mentioned in patchnotes. Apart from the obvious ones

And as for Wilfred, people are not _that_ stupid. They just learn the 'easy' way first, its a common thing in every game. Eventualy they still do stuff the normal way, but who are you to tell them 'how' they should get to 50? Because you did it the 'normal' way, they should do to?

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Because it's dull? Because not everything is about getting somewhere the quickest possible way? Because it's enjoyable to level up 'normally'?

Who are you to say it's okay to do things like PLing or farming?

It's soo bloomin' moronic the way people are gathered round in Atlas, lulzing and then asking totally stupid questions (from some 40s +) like: 'Were de legioner imprus TF? I wan do that?' (quoted from life)

Farming = people running from 1-50 in the blink of an eye and then leaving = less subscriptions = goodbye CoX. Yes that is a rather dramatic way of putting the view across but I would rather the game continued for longer than it may do if Farming and the like are allowed to continue on such a grand scale. And it is a grand scale! PI, bizarrely, is dead! Even Ourobouros is now frequently sans Fire/Kin trollers grouped around the entrance.

*takes a deep breath*

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For those of you who don't see anything threatening about a bunch of fairies

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Anyone who doesn't see anything threatening in a bunch of fairies, doesn't know much about fairies...

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Or hasn't seen me on a night out with 'the boys'...

Reporting missions as farming content might work - now if only we were sure that anybody was actually monitoring this...

I really don't get the proud attitude of 'I got from 1-30 in an hour/day whatever' - could someone explain it to me please? Preferably in terms of why this is a good thing? Not just in a 'Well, I got from 1-30, that's pretty much it [insert smiley]'.

There are too many farms and the other day I was invited to a team via the Mission Architect global channel:

It turned out to be a farm and when I mentioned this, the leader (who probably had created it) tried desperately not to mention that it was a farm. When he finally said yes, I simply said that I didn't want to be part of the team and then all the other farmers started piping up about 'not moaning' - although with poor spelling (and I sensed not intentionally bad). I quit feeling very angry that I'd been invited to a team, only to find out it was a farm. When I objected to it I was told to stop complaining and felt, somehow, as if I was the one at fault for not explaining the purpose of the team.

So the arguments of 'Don't tell me how to play my game!' extend to people not wishing to farm/PL/be morons.

I'm tempted to suggest that the Devs just make a simple 'farming map mission' - advertise it to the community of impatient and ungrateful (Find that offensive? Sue me) people who actually enjoy grinding Praetorians and Freaks - and be done with it, with a complete crackdown on any other farm missions created by players. Simple deletion from the server.

So then, when I type in 'Farm' and 'Ticket' just to inflict myself with total despair, I won't get 48+ pages of utter twaddle not even worthy of a year 7 SATS test 'lowest grade ever' paper. Never mind trying to search for half-decent missions and being faced with lots of 5 star stuff only to find out that that too is a farm/PL arc.

Shameless self-promotion from me!

Jack Wolfe's Sewers Task Force (see my sig for the arc number) is my effort at replacing the joy that is Positron! Strongly recommended in balanced teams of 4+, the level range of 1-14 is consistent and the new group seem balanced - they provide a challenge of course but not a 'I need to keep popping wakies, this is getting boring'.

If anyone fancies testing it out (I have already done so with a team of 4 and it worked - minor edits were made and so I believe it is ready for review proper!)

I tried to chuck in some oft-asked questions/answers so that not only is it lowbie friendly but new-to-the-game friendly too.

Oh and it's definitely Hero-themed.

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Wasn't it said that when the Coming Storm arrives we'll all be kicking ourselves at the small clues/teasers that had been staring us in the face for so long but we missed them?

ok - I'm paraphrasing, but they said something like that - about the time of Faultline revamp iirc. It may not have been 'The Coming Storm' they said, but some big development is coming...

So it's still possible that the Rikti war, shenanigans in the ancient Mediterranean and people trying to alter/mess with time are all still threads that will pull together (hopefully in I15).

It's CoH only, but I'd expect the FL revamp could still be tied in to this (re: Moon and gravitational effects).


Even without these threads being pulled together into a steaming, kettle-driven plot of Machievellian cunning there has still been story content:
- Ouroboros brought in 3 mini TFs.
- RWZ brought in an enjoyable series of arcs and a darn fine TF
- Cimerora brought some throwaway repeatable missions and a darn fine TF

Okay, Cimerora/Midnighters brought had less than some might like (myself included) - but, IIRC, this was also used as a learning zone for some of the new hires at NCNC (as was). The sale of CoX IP, creation of NCNC, moving offices, finding/hiring/integrating new staff all takes time away from pure development (of both story and engine).

I15/16 are the telling issues for me. I actually think they've done quite well if I15 is as big as we've been thinking after reading redname comments in interviews... If they get back on track then they had a year of serious disruption and a 3-month hiatus to normal service due to MA.

I15/6 are the new-improved-team big-content issues that were probbaly planned for early and mid 2009 (before MA mucked up the schedule).

btw - don't forget that I14 was I13 part 2... I'd guess that by now if MA hadn't had to be bumped to it's own issue we'd already be on the believed-to-be-story-heavy I15...

And given that, I suspect that I16 is story heavy as well, as the story/developments of I16 would have been looking at being the closest issue to CO launch if the schedule hadn't been bumped by MA. Pretty sure that the devs will have been planning some cracking story developments to arrive around CO...

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I was intrigued by Sister Psyche's comments (IG) during the 'Origin of Power' arc (I was playing a mutant at the time so got the full SP from her). She talked about psychics and said that she believed that psychics were a separate origin in themsleves. She also mentions the Sybils/Cybils (whatever) as being the start of that particular origin and there's hints elsewhere that Ghost Widow is descended, like Sister Psyche, from the Sybils.

Mender Silos is Nemesis. It makes sense that he would do something like that, perhaps one of his complex plans ends up destroying everything and preventing him from being Ruler of the Cosmos? Ridiculous but then we are talking about a comic book/super human World.

And because it's the 5th Anniversary then the 5th Column will be coming. Whether or not storms are involved matters little. I think there's about as much a chance of plot threads being tied up and coming together as there is of this game lasting more than 2 years (DOOM! Hey, I'm not normally a doomsayer, just trying it out to see what it feels like).

To be hoenst I doubt most people will kick themselves and, yes, this is going to be a very scathing mass generalisation that won;t win me friends or influence people: the truth of the matter is i think most people on the EU forums have figured it out. And I think the developers say 'you'll be kicking yourselves' because the majority of players are American and, well, probably not that clever. There, I said it!

But I really want to see story progression too. And not via more Rikti raids please...

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are these guys making this missions breaking any rules ?

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Interesting question - whilst the devs asked for any farming missions to be flagged up during beta so that they could check them, I don't think there's been a single instance of a rule stating, "Don't call your mission FARM and have it filled with Freaks".

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Hang on, does this mean that we as indivdual players can report for content (including farming)?

I'm getting a little depressed now with the pap that's in there. The enthusiastic mission creators - cool, can deal with that. it's the endless 'this is a farm but I'm not going to call it one - haha' missions that are really bothering me.

Col, go ahead and brutalise me! All my arcs are in my sig - and from what I've read so far I am guilty of a few cardinal sins - but hey, all's fair in reviewing and praising!

Ah you see, that's where they went wrong!

They should have used Weebles instead of Tribbles.

Everyone knows that Weebles wobble but they don't fall down...

*has images of men and women in 19th Century safari gear, running down the road with butterfly nets*

"Come back, cheetahs! Come back!"

Bored...

Okay, as this is a general AND a specific 'suggestions' thread - some villain groups I can see appearing in i15:

<ul type="square">1. 5th Column
2. Proteas (or whoever he was, the one who killed Manticore's parents)
3. A 'more-defined Kheldian/Nictus threat', possibly brought about by the emergence of another alien race
4. The Menders as a fight againstable/with-able(!) group
5. Dawn Patrol and the Valiant Defenders (Russian group) - yes I want them just because of IG-RP! But I think they could make an appearance, as could German, French, Spanish, Italian - you name it - hero/villain groups. Europe must have them - it's not just Americans who have the monopoly on costumed vigilantes![/list]
Maps:

<ul type="square">Moonbase/Space Port (Boomtown would be perfect)
An investigation (and subsequently a revamp) of Dark Astoria. Make the BP more prominent and I think they're a fun and challenging group to go up against. Plus I am sick to the back teeth of 'The Wheel of Destruction' arc and a few other 'one-off' missions. I was going to try and make an arc with BP in (as a main enemy) but my interests lie now in trying to fill the dreaded blue and redside black holes that are 35-40.[/list]
MA v2.0 I can wait for. Yes we all knew that farming missions and the like would be made in abundance but, thankfully (imho), because there's an AE in virtually every main zone, we don't have to cram into Atlas to make stuff and the many farm tells I've had have ceased once I asked politely not to be asked again.

I may well be in the minority for saying that I have relished every moment of the MA and designing missions. Other games can whistle for subscriptions as far as I'm concerned.

I do hope they finish this investigation soon. What are they checking for by the way? I can't seem to find anything about it anywhere (although my search-fu is notoriously weak).

The most distressing thing is that one of my newly-published arcs only needed a few things tweaking and I was hoping to level up a new toon using the MA...

Also, what's the bug re: griefing out of the HoF? My interest is officially piqued!

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I'm curious, how many of you have planned mission arcs?
How many of those are to be used for RP, and how many are just for story telling (whether to RP or not)

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As I am finding my strengths lie in stories as opposed to RP (it's taken me a while...) I will be happy to 'GM' using the MA. I've already hinted to Omy that I would like to try my hand at a few 'psychic plane' arcs.

The peeps in the know are aware of my plans for an historical story based on certain, well-known characters...

I am also having much fun with storylines based on the legends of Paragon and the super-powered 'World At Large' (just fiddling about with 'A is for Atlas' with plans to do a Dawn Patrol arc (yes, with actual British and French heroes! AND Storm Korps!) in the future.)

Like Shadowe, I too have 2 accounts. But I'm currently sticking with @Arctic Princess and seeing how the current published works are doing before branching out to @AP2. I think the second account will be more for the RP-based arcs which I can put up and take down without need for them to be rated etc. Plus I do tend to spend a lot of time and energy in creating the things so will be keeping everything in my local folder and making important back-ups.

So, to answer in brief (!), I will be mainly focussing on 'Stories' with an occasional dabble into 'RP'.

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Hmm.. I dunno Birdy. It sounds to me like the two groups of 15 actually take up the entire mission worth of spawns, so that nothing at all will spawn UNTIL the glowie is clicked. Someone needs to test this... Anyone reading from home and has the test server setup?

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Aha! Perhaps now Red Commissar will be able to pull that lever and see what happens (the one in Nova Prospekt that no one is sure about - unless this has already been done, of course!)

Another way is to make the patrols 'allies' and similarly the ambushes 'allies'.

Pay attention to the 'Details' numbers on your selected map

Some maps allow multiple details (and some specify what those details are allowed to be) at Front/Middle/Back whilst others are stricter.

Want your Boss to spawn at the back of the map after clicking a glowie at the back too? Check the details section and see if it's possible. If not then try a different map.

This tip was given to me by Soul Storm and has been invaluable!

Some maps don't have a Front/Middle/Back

These maps tend to be the outdoor maps (Such as Atlas Park and Steel Canyon), but can also apply to small caves without doors. Again, check the details section on your map to see if there are any restrictions on the details you can add.

Ah thanks Days - that makes sense.

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Blue 1-15:
Twisted Tales - Part One - Storyland in Danger! ID: 12937


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Just to inform you that my arc is Neutral and so is suitable for both sides. It was inspired by chat about 'lack of new events' and so was created as a sort of 'Holiday'-style set of missions.

I am also trying to work on the dreaded 35-40 level range but am finding it tough to be 'original'. Any thoughts and suggestions are always appreciated.

I am happy with the site! Very happy!

One thing though, it says there has been a review added to one of my missions - how do I look at it?

Where is that Nemesis Shadow Shard map? i can't find it anywhere!

I would have preferred it for the end of Twisted Tales Part One over the abandoned warehouse I eventually lumped for. I've unlocked all the maps too.

Westin Phipps - 'nuff said. A truly villainous arc. I also quite liked Psimon Omega's attempts to drain Aurora Borealis's brain. But Westin would come out trumps every time for me.

The Hall of Fame is supposed to be a long-term thing, to my mind anyway. However I do get the whole 'one person giving me a 1-star or not rating at all = general doom'.

Having said that, my personal criteria are as follows:

0 stars - absolute rubbish/uncompletable/incomprehensible OR a WIP arc that I am testing for a friend.

1 star - barely comprehensible in terms of story. Needs a lot of text editing. Mobs don't excite me (by that i generally mean Custom Mobs that add nothing to my personal experience)

2 star - obvious effort has been put in but the arc still lacks consistency. There could well be one thing that stands out as being great (and I will point out the 'keepers' in my feedback) but it is currently being overshadowed by bigger problems.

3 star - a good effort. Feels like a paper/radio/one-off mission but nothing to get too excited over. Nice to play and level up on.

4 star - Rather a lot of good stuff in there. Needs tightening up but otherwise worthy of the Hall of Fame. Minor problems that jar remain but are easily fixed.

5 star - It makes me laugh and/or cry (depending on flavour), clues are slick, editing is good, I could imagine my characters actually needing to go and do these things as Heroes or Villains. Also in this category are well-executed homages (that don't just use the names of the things they are pastiching - although I can take the odd exception) and experiences that feel like I am playing a different (and equally good) game.

I decided to not give out stars to the truly abhorrent because some missions I've played already have been dross. Yes this is personal opinion but, unless the author is being ironic (1337-speak for Freaks - shows signs of paying attention!) then txt spk and attrocious spelling and grammar on top of no plot, impossible enemies and a lack of thought means no stars at all from me. But plenty of comments!

Therefore I wholly support third-party advertising of arcs, player-created databases and all that because, well, if nothing it inspires creativity and, I like to think, will help create an additional community of creators. That's not to say Elite creators, just people who care about stories and entertaining their gaming peers.

A total number of stars given would be nice too (you have received 1 star for this arc which has been out for months, as opposed to 250,000 for this one which you put up two days ago could be a better indication of how you're doing.)

As much as I fight the urge, I want everyone to like my arcs. And if they don't I want to know the reasons why. It's a no-win situation for me but I'd rather have a 1 or 0 star rating with many comments than a bunch of 2-4s with nothing.

PM me on here if you want to give more feedback than the limited text size allows. Or email Arctic Princess (character email).

@Muu 's Footsteps Initiative arc.

Chuckling was had, including over on the GGOOC channel (who were the folks responsible for pushing me in its direction).

I am waiting patiently for the servers to come back up to try the lauded ...Discount Task Force arc!

Those were the lols.

A great MA arc on Test (by @VanHellen1, I think) of which i have forgotten the name was about a plot to prevent Galaxy Girl from becoming a hero. Really good but strongly advisable to play it on heroic if it is ever transferred. Please can the person responsible come forward. It deserves the limelight!

Also @Soul Storm 's Shadows in Your Mind (No, Soul Storm, this is not a ploy to get you to recommend mine ) felt like a different experience from just playing CoX. Great mob design with challenege but not 'I can't be bothered with this anymore' difficulty. It also had a neat-o storyline!

Those were the 'serious' arcs.

Dr. Mechano's (sorry, don;t know your global, Doc) Bare Knuckles of Fury arc. I loved Streets of Rage and all the other affectionately-pastiched side-scrolling beat-'em-ups when I was a young'un. Good fun.

That was the 'tribute' section!

There will be more I intend to recommend. Point me in the 'right' direction and I will endeavour to do as many as I can. Loving the MA!