Alari_Azure

This has been something that has been driving me out of my mind. (not a very long drive, mind you) I've tried a lot of different maps. Sometimes it all works fine, then I run the mission again and it's all messed up.

I've also had a few instances of enemies getting stuck in ceilings. So far, I've at least been able to get at them to hit them. There's one lowbie Outcast mission in the Hollows that I always seem to have that problem with but I can never reach them. Of course, it's the guy that I need to beat to get the key to open a door, so I have to send a petition to have a GM get him 'unstuck'. Depending on how busy they are, I have to wait around for them to reply. It's very annoying.

First of all I would like to thank everyone that has been playing my arcs over the past week or so. They have all gotten some attention and their ratings have been holding in the 4* category. I really appreciate the feedback that I get from people. It has been very helpful in my editing process, making tweaks here & there where needed.

Since a few people have started to post some screenshots, I decided to take a few of some of my characters. So far I have one of my occasional contact that I used in the Circle of Thorns mission. Since I can't put a description that will be seen by players, I've added it here. The rest of the pics are some of the characters in my custom group, the Demon Spawn, along with their descriptions. It's not all of them, but it will give people a peek at what they can expect to see in my missions. I may be adding a few more here & there as I get a chance to snap a few more. I set up a test arc with them set as allies to get them to hold still long enough to get their pics without them trying to kill me.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39...6-15-26-17.jpg
Angelique Pio (contact) came to Paragon City from a small town. She began her life here as a journalist, working for the Paragon News. Because of her ability to dig up information that seemed impossible to attain, she was soon offered a job working under cover, as a liaison with the Paragon Police Department. Her long list of contacts in the city come in mighty handy for coordinating Heroes with situations that require their particular set of skills.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39...ashDeMento.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39...ookingmean.jpg
Slash DeMento (leader/boss) was just a regular guy until he met the Outcasts and they corrupted him. After a while, he didn't think they were bad enough for him. He wanted to start his own gang, so he wouldn't have to answer to anyone else. He'd make his own rules and give the orders. If anyone challenged him, he'd make them wish they were never born. He was tired of the petty pranks of Frostfire. He wanted to make his own mark and rule the streets. He wanted to make sure that everyone in town feared him. If you tangle with him, be ready for a nasty fight.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39...eLacerator.jpg
The Lacerator (boss) is Slash DeMento's big brother, Jack. Jack is very protective of his little brother and would never let any harm come to him. When Slash fell in with the Outcasts, he talked his brother into joining them, too. After they moved up in the ranks, Slash decided they weren't willing to go as far as he wanted them to. So, Jack helped him give Frostfire a nasty beating, then they left and took half the Outcasts with them to form a new gang that would be loyal to Slash. Jack wields a very big sword.

Swordsman (minion)
The Swordsmen are the Lacerator's special project. He's working on training them to follow in his footsteps. They have the basics down pretty good, but they need a little more practice to live up to their full potential.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39...hillyWilly.jpg
Hatchet McGee (boss)
Hatchet McGee is an old friend of Slash DeMento. They met when they were just minions in the Outcasts. When Slash decided to strike out on his own, his friend was more than willing to leave the Outcasts behind to follow him. He was pretty tired of taking orders from that blowhard, Frostfire.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39...oes/Hacker.jpg
Hacker (Lt)
When this guy shows up, he means business. There's nothing he likes better than to open a gash in anyone that decides to take him on. Slash has a special place in his heart for his choice of weapon and he's always willing to give him a few tips on how to use it.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39/Tel...Angelique-1.jpg
Shivers (Lt)
Shivers have fine tuned their icy skills and have gotten a promotion for their efforts. These guys can really throw around those ice cubes and make you wish that a little more global warming would kick in whenever they're around.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39...eatensharm.jpg
Sizzlers (Lt)
Sizzlers are real pyromaniacs that make you long for cold winter months. You might want to carry some salve to ease the pain because their fiery attacks can really give you blisters that can leave an ugly scar.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39...oes/Chills.jpg
Chills (minion)
Chills are just learning to use their skill in casting icy spells to deal with foes. Their chilling effects can really slow you down. With a bit of practice, they can be a real pain to deal with when they show up.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39...es/FireBug.jpg
Fire Bug (minion)
These guys just love to play with fire. They'll throw a fireball at you, then laugh when they see you writhing in pain. They haven't exactly learned that when you play with fire, you tend to get burned.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39...6-14-36-06.jpg
Taz (occasional Lt)
Taz has always been a big fan of the martial arts. His parents started him taking lessons when he was very young. I'm sure if they'd realized then that he'd fall in with a bunch like the Outcasts, and, eventually end up in the ranks of the Demon Spawn, they never would've allowed him to take those lessons. He certainly learned the art well. Unfortunately, he didn't take the true purpose of it only being for self defense to heart. Now, he uses his natural talent for evil instead of good, and his parents have disowned him.

Are you working on an arc that has already been published or is it a new arc? It's tough to know what the problem could be without a little more info.

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Mish 3 intro: worshiping -> worshipping

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Just an FYI, both forms seem to be accepted as correct on various dictionary websites. (the spellchecker in Firefox actually tags the doubled 'p' as incorrect)

I have a tendency to want to put that extra 'p' in there, too. Force of habit for me, with the old grammar rule for adding 'ing' to a word, I guess.

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Agreed. And PLers can't miss the mission-entry advert that says "Mission Architect Tip: You can level 1-50 with Mission Architect," or words to that effect. It's a way of saying, "Skip the game content. PL, PL, PL."

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Contrary to some people's interpretation of that statement, I don't think it has anything to do with the devs promoting PLing or farming. Far from it. Many people like to see it that way, but if you look at it more logically, they are merely stating that the MA can be a means to get all the way to level 50, because the wide range of missions available in AE does cover every possible level range. The devs would be have to be stupid to promote something that they have clearly discouraged since MA went live. But, people tend to want to interpret things like that the way they want them to be, which is highly unlikely the way they were meant by the devs at all.

I really wish there was a channel specifically set up for people looking for AE "fast leveling/we don' need no steenkin' story" teams and another one for AE story focused missions. Then, we could actually read broadcast without the constant barrage of "lft/lfm for AE boss mission", etc.. People could use broadcast for regular game missions and everyone would have a place to look for what they really want/need.

As the old song goes, "Dream along with me."

(we really need a rolly eyes smilie on the boards)

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I agree that the only difference between 'professional' & 'amateur' is the cash. I've got a lot of friends that sing and play music as a 'hobby'. A few of them play 'professionally', but when they're not up on that stage, they spend many hours playing for the pure enjoyment of making music with friends. Some of those friends that are only amateurs are as good if not better than some that play professionally. Just because they're not pros, it doesn't mean they are any less talented at what they do. The one thing that they all have in common is their talent and love for music. I don't make a distinction between those that play for money and those that don't. They all love to play music and are very good at what they do for fun.

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I'm not sure just what it is you're suggesting here. Are you really trying to tell me that in general, amateurs and professionals have little difference in terms of the quality of their work?

Hypothetically speaking, do you take law advice from a buddy who read up on some law books instead of an actual lawyer? Do you take medical diagnosis from Yahoo! answers made by some pre-med student instead of an actual doctor? Do you take financial advise from a family member who dabbles in the stock market instead of a fully licensed Financial Advisor? Yet when it comes to the various fields of art, the seperation between professionals and amateurs is all the sudden less relevent? I would certainly hope that's not what you're claiming.

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OK, that was one of the strangest analogies that I would have ever expected in response to my statement. Since I was referring to another art form ('art' being the key word here) and not a 'hard science' as a reference, your answer is completely irrelevant to anything that I said. After reading this whole thread, it doesn't surprise me that you seem to enjoy making irrelevant comparisons to try to make your point sound plausible.

Since your assumption (Do I need to explain what happens when we assume?) is that someone who gets paid for their work (i.e. is a 'professional' by your definition) and is therefore inherently better at what they do for that simple fact alone, let me give you a few examples to challenge your 'assumption'.

Amateurs: Paul Potts, Susan Boyle (both can be seen on youtube from Britain's Got Talent)
Professionals: Tiny Tim, Bob Dylan (great writer, crappy singer), (random) wedding singers that charge people heaps of cash for their crappy voices to be heard

I rest my case.

I agree that the only difference between 'professional' & 'amateur' is the cash. I've got a lot of friends that sing and play music as a 'hobby'. A few of them play 'professionally', but when they're not up on that stage, they spend many hours playing for the pure enjoyment of making music with friends. Some of those friends that are only amateurs are as good if not better than some that play professionally. Just because they're not pros, it doesn't mean they are any less talented at what they do. The one thing that they all have in common is their talent and love for music. I don't make a distinction between those that play for money and those that don't. They all love to play music and are very good at what they do for fun.

Just a quick note. I did the rewrite/replacement of the CoT mission, Deal with the Devil's Pawn, and the new ID# is in my sigline. Have fun.

Tenacious level (2) will spawn bosses as opposed to Lts. I only have one toon that I raised up, just to see how hard the custom boss was as a boss, so I don't have a lot exp in playing at that diff setting. I think he was the same level as me but conned as yellow, IIRC. (on a tank, if that matters)

Maybe if you spent a little more time reading the Stories & Lore section of the forum you'd be able to find a lot more missions with a decent story, that might even be interesting for you to play. If you don't care about stories or regular types of missions, then I don't know what to tell you. Apparently, you were depending on other people to find something that you might also want to do (by teaming with the farmers that hang out in AE) rather than looking for missions that might interest you in the MA list.

It seems that most people I see in AE that are looking for teams, or forming teams, only seem to care about boring farms made for quick leveling. No content, no story plot, nothing. Even if I could team without crashing, I'd avoid them like the plague. But, there are a few people out there that specifically say they are not looking for farming missions or teams. I'd probably try to team with some of them. They tend to be more likely to be trying to find interesting missions that have a little more to them than a slugfest for mega-xp. Maybe that's just me.

The whole point of MA is to give players the ability to create custom critters and stories to use them in. Some people try to balance their custom groups to be similar in make-up to standard enemies, and set up the missions to have a decent story based on those characters.

Other people seem to just want to make custom mega-powered critters that are used in ways to kill the player as fast as possible, or when they finally make it to the maxed out EB/AV boss in the final showdown. They seem to think it's funny to hear people complain about getting killed in less than 2 minutes by playing their 'uber' mission. You can't expect there to not be a lot of idiots out there that will do stuff like that.

Then, there are the people that really don't care about story, anyway. All they want to make is a slugfest arc filled with hi-xp critters for whatever reason. They don't look for stories in any mission they play so all they're building is a mission as a reason to beat the crap out of a gazillion critters.

Personally, I've tried to make my custom critters in a way that will make them somewhat challenging, but still beatable by a wide range of people playing the missions. I also like to write a fun story that players can usually solo fairly easily. There are a lot of mission creators out there that are doing the same types of arcs that I am. They are creating a well rounded story with some very interesting custom characters.

If you spend some time reading the Stories & Lore section of the forum, you will be able to find whatever type of mission you're looking to find. There are some excellent writers and missions out there. It just takes a little digging through the dirt to find the gold.

I just replaced one of mine with an updated version (Deal with the Devil's Pawn #207266). I added a lot more content and a custom boss. It's a single CoT mission. I'm actually having a lot of fun making arcs. I wish I had more slots because I have another custom group that I've been working on that I'd like to make an arc to fit them.

My other 2 slots are missions that are the same custom enemies in both arcs. Slash DeMento and the Stolen Weapons #100045 is a single mission 'intro' to the whole gang and Meet the Demon Spawn #151099 is a 4 mission arc. I'm hoping that I15 will let me add more story to the 4 mission one. It's a little sparse story wise because customs eat up a lot of memory.

If you're not into making arcs, but you like to play arcs with a story, give them a try and let me know what you think.

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As AE sits now it is the perception by some that the majority of AE participants are only interested in Boss-only missions. If the Devs alter AE in the manner I described then all critters, stock and custom, would offer the same gains in xp and inf., give or take.

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There's no indication that the devs are going to do what you describe. Indeed, there are plenty of indiciations pretty much in the other direction. They are adding more power selection variety, not less.

And even if they did what you're suggesting with the primary/secondary combinations, it wouldn't result in what you're suggesting it would.

In short, this all seems silly.

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I agree. His assumptions about having strict limits on costume choices being made, also seems pretty silly. It would take away most of the fun some of us get in creating custom characters at all. I don't know where he's getting the idea that the devs would make the MA so completely dumbed down, but I can only guess that it's strictly from his own out of tune 'spidey senses'. Certainly not from reading anything here on the forums. At least, not that I've seen, anywhere.

As far as getting people to play your arcs, teaming for the purpose of playing your arcs (and the round robin thing) is a very good idea. If I could team without risking being mapserved many times in a mission, I would definitely consider doing that. My best alternative has been to post my missions in the Mission Architect Stories & Lore section of the forum. There are many good threads there that give tips for getting your arc played and for getting/giving reviews. It has helped me to get mine recognized. It's a slow process for sure, because there are so many thousands of arcs out there to be played (just look at the ID#s and remember that each one is/was an arc), but it does help. It also helps to, occasionally, send a broadcast message as an advertisement for your arcs like the SGs do for members.

Maybe you could copy them and put them in word processor file, i.e. Word, MS Works, whatever. Then you'll have them all on your hard drive.

I haven't checked mine in a few days, but I deleted a few last week. I really didn't want to remember some of those horrendous arcs.

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I'm not sure what's going on, without specifically putting in 'boss' encounters I can't get regular old bosses from my custom group to spawn during my missions. To elaborate, my enemy group consists of four types of minions, then four types of lieutenants, and then four types of bosses, but I cannot get anything but lieutenants and minions to spawn for the mission. What am I doing wrong?

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I think you have to use boss encounters to get them to spawn at all. And, on 'heroic' they will only spawn as Lts.

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Ever since Mission Architect was first announced, my main villain has wanted to steal the giant doughnut in Faultline.

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All the cops in Faultline would really be ticked off. And, it would keep all those heroes from getting their Old Fashioned badge? Now, that's really evil!

I noticed something rather odd when I was looking for a suitable office map the other day. As I was scrolling through the floors as they were presented on one of the maps, it showed what was supposed to be the first floor, but it showed it having 2 elevators. The other 2 floors each showed having 1 elevator. I checked a few others and saw the same type of thing on those, as well. I'm sure that has a lot to do with maps not reading all of the front/middle/back objectives correctly. I have to wonder how many others have the same problem.

I couldn't put the line 'nip it in the bud' in one of my descriptions. It seems the filters are a bit nitpicky. Another forum that I frequent won't let the name of a famous author through the filter, either. Don't even think about discussing Alfred Hitchcock over there.

I think the difference between JABOSTH and a decent story, using the same general theme, is the way the author will use those same old plots to weave their story. Let's say two authors take that old familiar plot. One adds interesting back story, characters and circumstances to make it new and interesting, while the another just follows along with the same old boring clichés, rinsed & repeated. The first author might just turn out to be another Shakespeare, while the second turns out to be a dime-a-dozen romance novelist that couldn't write an original line if his life depended on it. Basically, it all boils down to the fact that some people have a knack for great storytelling and some don't.

Then again, a lot of people's preferences in stories depend on what the reader likes. Some people like predictable plots. Maybe it just makes them feel good if they can figure everything out before it happens. Other people like to be surprised and have to think a little harder to figure it all out. That's why great epic novels might sell fewer books, while there are still a lot of other people out there that are willing to by dime-a-dozen romance novels. As long as there's a market for both of them, there will be authors willing to fill that role.

You could always try to steal some type of powerful magical artifact from the MAGI vault and sell it to some magic based enemy. For fun & profit, of course.

Well, the deed is done. I published the new version and updated my thread and sigline to reflect the new ID# 207266. If anyone is willing to test it out, I would greatly appreciate any feedback on the story and on the added custom characters.

Thanks again to everyone for the advice given. I really appreciate it.

UPDATE!


Arc Name: Deal with The Devil's Pawn [/color]
NEW Arc ID: 207266
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global Name: @Alari Azure
Difficulty Level: 5-54
Synopsis: Single Mission/Circle of Thorns/Large Office Map/Ambush/Custom Boss/Collection/Patrol
You must defeat The Devil's Pawn and recover Lucifer's Scroll and other items stolen from the Museum of Antiquities. The Circle of Thorns must never be allowed to unlock the secret spell that has been written on that scroll. If they ever do, it could be the worst thing that could ever happen to the people of Paragon City. They must be stopped before it's too late!

UPDATE!


Arc Name: Deal with The Devil's Pawn [/color]
NEW Arc ID: 207266
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global Name: @Alari Azure
Difficulty Level: 5-54
Synopsis: Single Mission/Circle of Thorns/Large Office Map/Ambush/Custom Boss/Collection/Patrol
You must defeat The Devil's Pawn and recover Lucifer's Scroll and other items stolen from the Museum of Antiquities. The Circle of Thorns must never be allowed to unlock the secret spell that has been written on that scroll. If they ever do, it could be the worst thing to ever happen to the people of Paragon City. They must be stopped before it's too late!

I've decided that trying to transfer all of the info from the replacement to live would be way too much work to try to do, for the few ratings that it has at this point. I have had too many mapserver problems in the past few days, so chances are that I could end up having to do some of it more than once, even if I did it in stages. I'm going into the game now to make the change. I will come back to update my sigline and my thread to put in the new arc ID#.

Thank you, all, for the feedback. It is very much appreciated.

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This forum is now set to "not purge".

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Thank you!