AncientSpirit_NA

I have never chosen the Ghost Slaying Ax option and am curious about those who have. What mobs did they work against? And did their value run out after a certain level or continue to serve you right through level 50?

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900 month? Exactly how many 80+ year olds do you think are going to be playing?

I can see the BRB messages right now.

*BRB! Teeth popped out!*
*BRB! Just filled my Depends!*
*BRB! Stroke!*

*BRB! A skeleton with a scythe just showed up on my doorstep!*
"Guys! I vote we just go on without him!"


"You were away for three hours!"
"I hadda go to the bathroom!"
"How far away is your bathroom?"
"About 10 feet."
"And it took you three hours?"
"I'm 85!"

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This is the worst kind of discrimination: age-ism!!!! I am well over 85 and fully enjoy CoX. So does my father! None of your stupid jokes slows us down (although admittedly, sometimes arthrities in the fingers makes it difficult to hit the Heal Other button when its desperately needed.)

In fact, the only one of us that age has really put a crimp in his playing style is my grandfather, god bless him, who thinks all the toons are pictures of his great, great grandchildren.

So leave us old-timers alone. Our money is as good as yours. (Even better, actually, since it doesn't look like the Monopoly money that everyone uses these days, by crackey!)

Oh, and one other thing ...

A-33, I respect your reason to leave the game.

Well, not so much your reason, but your decision to leave the game. If something isn't working for you ... if you don't feel a product is living up to its promose, for any reason, as a consumer you have the right to stop forking over your hard-earned dollars to continue playing.

That said, I'm unclear about two things:

1) Why do other players feel the need to tell you how wrong you are to pick up your marbles and leave? Your leaving has no effect on my ability to enjoy this game, or anyone else's. Why the fuss?

2) If you feel good about leaving the game, why are you still here in the forums "defending" your position. Why not exit gracefully, close the door behind you and never look back. (That's what I thought you were doing with your announcement about you and wife leaving.) Isn't it obvious to you that virtually everyone else here has decided to continue playing -and paying for -- this game, and has a vested interest in you being out of your mind for leaving?

Threads like this can go on forever. Unless you wisely act upon your true feelings, say goodbye, and leave on a classy "exit line". (After Rhett Butler said, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." he didn't take another three days to tell us WHY he didn't give a damn. Exit line. Fade to black. Roll credits. Lights up. On to another movie.

btw, you've taken a good time to leave. Other superhero games are now on the horizon ... maybe you can even get into a beta. (And who knows, maybe when you sample what else is out there, you'll rethink how you feel about CoX ... OR, maybe that experience will only reinforce everything you've said here.)

Either way, good luck to you.

While I won't comment on your paticular vision of powersets, I believe that your observation of the lack of basic magic "weapsons" is valid.

Given that there is already a wand in the game, there is really no reason why we shouldn't have the option of having it as a customizable weapon.

I would be stastified with a Wand AT type, just as we have archery as an AT. And I'm sure the dev's could put together a mix of old and new powersets to build something unique without having to do a lot of extra work.

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I'm not sure it's reasonable to expect to retain control over content you submit to the MA. For one thing, I believe it's explicitly stated in the user agreement that NCSoft gets the rights to content created in the system (I vaguely recall this is a hedge against copyright issues, by forcing the user to assume the onus of copyright ownership to begin with). For another, there's nothing stopping anyone from copying everything about the characters from their visible info.

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I was referring to the OP's suggestion of literally sending another player your files so that they could insert them elsewhere without muss or fuss. Again, for me that would depend on how they were used.

On the other hand, you're right. One COULD take an in-game photo of every custom critter in the story ... AND click on them to get their descriptions (which make them all the more fun). BUT that would be a lot of work, imho.

And anyone who has that kind of time, talent and attention to detail, would probably be spending their time creating new custom mobs. (Ones that I would want to steal from them.)

Why do you all assume that steampunk technology is the same as steam technology?

Does email use the same technology as mail does?

While I can't help you, maybe you can help me.

I have this same combination but am only at level 17. I took the medicine pool to keep my undead ... well, undead (they're not alive).

What build do you have so far and why did you choose what you chose?

My concept is to be a sick, twisted satanic version of DC's Zantanna.

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I think most creators who grant permission for their characters to be used could reasonably expect credit for their work (noted in the character's description), as well as the right to withdraw their permission at any time.

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While I agree with the first part of this sentence, I strongly disagree with the second part. Once you agree to let someone use your characters and they invest a lot of energy in creating their arc, it seems too cruel to me to simply withdraw permission.

On the other hand, I think it would be foolish to give someone permission to use your characters if you had no control at all in how they were used. (Imagine Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock as lovers ... fan-fiction writers imagine it all the time.)

I would suggest anyone willing to "share" their custom critters have a clear understanding of the story idea and they way they would be used before agreeing to anything.

That said, I still thinik your basic premise is valid.

As for my own custom critters, players may enjoy the two groups of playing cards in my arc "Wicked, Wicked Wonderland" (#1224).

The first group is filled only with Clubs, Diamonds and Spades - and are therefore called "Not Playing with a Full Deck"

And the second group, a sad lot, consists of the remainder. They're called, "The Broken Hearts".

As I play various arcs, I notice that many custom groups have the identical description for each member of the custom group. Not the playing cards, though. Each card has a unique (and perhaps even clever) description that is his or hers alone.

They also have powers that may reflect their suit. So guess what you're up against when you run into the King of Clubs? The only odd toon out is "The Wild Card" because his powers are ... well ... diverse.

Good luck with this idea and this thread. What I like best about it is that is another good way of helping authors like myself promote their arcs ... without being a review that gives away the story details and unexpected plot twists of each arc. I appreciate that.

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If something is illegal I report it ... if I meet a really WELL-made Story that is also an illegal farm, I'll 5 star + report it ...

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Could you give me an example of this? In my mind, if an arc is a well-written story worthy of 5 stars then it can't BE a farm, it can only be used AS a farm (the same way countless dev arcs are used as farms). But the onus would be on the players of the arc and not the author.

The reason I ask you to explain this is that its entirely possible that I'm being naive and that what you say is possible. But some examples would be appreciated.

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Here's a sample of data I took from May 18th:

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
arcs VS S M L VL
5 3 486 446 941 1107
4 1006 6305 2620 2766 2677
3 1383 3040 1005 667 649
2 385 876 301 151 128
1 193 692 199 92 77
</pre><hr />

This is a breakdown of rating by size. This is all freely available information, by the way, if you're crazy enough to collect it: the devs are not generous with their datamining information, even with (maybe especially with) me. Note the interesting pattern that if you exclude 5-star arcs, most of the ratings regardless of rating-stars are for small arcs: this suggests that small arcs are played more often than any other size arc (they are at least rated more often). My guess is that VS arcs are much less likely to be good stories *or* good farms, and players are realizing that.

However, 5-star arcs don't fit that pattern. Since there is a clear skew towards Small sized (by flag) arcs, the fact that most 5-star arcs are VL (and the longer the arc the more 5-star arcs it has) implies that there is a very strong bias away from giving smaller arcs a 5-star rating. In fact, VS arcs have trouble getting even a 4-star rating.

There's a lot of data points I'm trying to keep track of as often as I can remember to. But given the various sources of uncertainty in the data (in terms of trying to extrapolate to information I don't have access to) I'm still gathering as much information as I can before I draw any conclusions, as suggestive as the data I have currently seems to be (also, I'm collecting more data now than when I first started, as some of the early data began to show signs of patterns I didn't expect - for instance, there's just the slightest hint that the day of the week you first publish can influence your rating, but the signal is not strong enough with my current data to conclude its statistically significant).

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I took your numbers and did an analysis by percentage.

The data converted to percentage:

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
VS S M L VL
5 0.10% 4.26% 9.76% 20.38% 23.87%
4 33.87% 55.31% 57.32% 59.91% 57.72%
3 46.57% 26.67% 21.99% 14.45% 13.99%
2 12.96% 7.68% 6.58% 3.27% 2.76%
1 6.50% 6.07% 4.35% 1.99% 1.66%
</pre><hr />

I graphed the data and noticed a few things:

VL and L arcs share similar distributions

M and S arcs share similar distributions

Among 5, 3, 2, and 1 star arcs, length seems to be an important factor. VL arcs do better than L arcs, which do better than M arcs, which do better than S arcs, which do better than VS arcs.

Note: 'better' means different things for different stars. For 5 start arcs 'better' means a higher percentage of - you want your arc to receive this rating. For 1,2 and 3 star ratings, 'better' means a lower percentage - you do not want you arc to receive this rating.

Among 4 star arcs, length doesn't seem to matter as much. The ratings for VL, L, M, and S all cluster around the 55-60% range.

VS arcs look underrepresented at the 4 and 5 star ratings.


Here's some possible conclusions:
<ul type="square"> [*]people like to reward effort. They recognize that it takes more effort to craft a longer story arc, so they grade you slightly better based on that.
[*]since the longer arcs take longer to make, the authors are putting more work into them - and that results in a better story.
[*]a longer arc gives the author more time to tell their story, and thus a better story results.
[*] VS arcs may involve someone experimenting with the MA and not an actual attempt at a story.
[*] is may be more difficult to put together a high quality Very Short arc because there just aren't that many story elements to work with.
[/list]

Something that i didn't consider is that the longer the arc is, the greater the chance that the players will bail out of it before finishing it. This may cause longer arcs to be underrepresented at the lower end of the rating scale.

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I found this information to be interesting, especially the (very reasonable) speculation about how players may rate based on the length of an arc.

My arc "Wicked, Wicked Wonderland" WAS long when I first made it. Then the patch came and it was "too long" and broken. Then another patch came and it was fixed - and it suddenly became ... Medium?????

At all times I crammed it held the same 99.xxxxxx% that it could hold ... so I've never quite been sure what the difference is in Medium and Long. (Perhaps the number of missions?)

I wish there were a way to let people (who don't read the forums) know that there is often very little relationship between the number of missions in an arc and the amount of detail, story-telling, innovation and custom mob crafting in it.

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My funniest for "Wicked, Wicked Wonderland" (a perverted twist on Lewis Carrol's Alice and Wonderland) had to come from the player who advised me to change my choice of story Contact, who was a university professor named Carol Lewis. `

He complained that she didn't "fit in".

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ROFLMAO!!

Apparently, someone didn't 'get' the perfect irony of that name. They've probably never read anything more 'literary' than a comic book, either.

I might have to try that arc, just to check out the twisted humor. I hope there aren't any nasty EB/AVs in it.

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Hey, Telstar ... I saw you tried my story yesterday. Glad you really enjoyed it. And I appreciated the kind words.

My funniest for "Wicked, Wicked Wonderland" (a perverted twist on Lewis Carrol's Alice and Wonderland) had to come from the player who advised me to change my choice of story Contact, who was a university professor named Carol Lewis.

He complained that she didn't "fit in".

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I understand where the OP is coming from. He's just wondering why some people do enjoy it. I can't say for sure why, I just do. The same reason I like GMing pencil and paper games I suppose, It's fun to create, and see other people interacting with my creations.

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Great analogy!

I read about the ability to change standard contact's names and outfit colors in I15 but when I tried it on test, it didn't happen. Did I get this wrong?

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I paid for this game and feel like I am getting good value for my money. I also feel the Dev's have done a great job offering a lot of variety in the game. They spend a lot of time and sweat making sure the AT's are balanced and the maps are interesting and populated with challenging foes. I enjoy playing the game. Why should I invest my time doing tedious work that takes a long time, for which I will not be paid, only to create something that the Dev's probably already have done or was very similar? I don't object to this being offered, I just don't get the draw. To me it seems an awful lot like work. Or...... I am completely off-base, and missing the point (not an unusual event) and the point of architect is............

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I think the reason your "completely off-base" is because your drawing your conclusions from a series of false assumptions:

False Assumption #1 "It's tedious work": Like most things, its only tedious if you don't enjoy it. I'm a writer and I love my job - and some days I feel like the day is just getting started. My wife, on the other hand, hates to write ... and for her writing is a horrible and tedious chore. For those of us who want to write, MA is FUN. Making your story sparkle becomes obsessive and compelling ... and that's fun, too.

False Assumption #2: We don't get paid. True, we don't get paid in CASH. But we do get paid in ego-stroking. When someone plays my arc and stops to tell me that it was a lot of fun or that loved my custom mobs, it makes me feel great! And when I see my arc - which I thought only my 5 friends were going to play -- get up to 140 plays with an average 4-star rating -- I get bragging rights! In life, there are a LOT of different ways of getting paid.

False Assumption #3: MArcs just repeat or are very similar to what the dev's have already done. While this may be true in many cases, there are so many wonderful MArcs out there with custom mobs you've never been pitted against before and stories that are so outside of "canon" that they are unlike anything dev's have ever done - or ever will do. Try the arc in my signature, for example. Or just do a search with the key word "custom" and then browse among what comes up until something tickles your fancy.

The best part, of course, is that you don't have to create any stories of your own to enjoy MArcs. All you have to do to enjoy MA, is to play a few. Especially when you create a new lowbie toon, you can enjoy wonderful new content and not have to do the same old, same old arcs in Atlas, Kings Row, Perez Park and the Hollows.

I'll stand pat with what I have, unless I find any changes that have accidentally been made for me. ("If it ain't broke, don't fix it!")

Tahlana,

Thank you for recommending "Wicked, Wicked Wonderland." I'm glad you had fun playing it.

(And my sincerest apologies to Lewis Carroll who, because of this arc, is now spinning in his grave.)

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Although, I must admit, if I were a dev and saw an arc played 999+ times, I would check it out.

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I am still seeing arcs that are obvious farms... with over 500 plays. The number of plays means nothing.

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I have to disagree with you there. The number of plays means alot ... both good and bad. That's why I didn't recommend that Devs simply award heavily played MArcs a DC. I said... it would be worthwhile to check them out.

For TWO reasons: 1) They may be great and WORTHY of a DC; and 2) they may be obvious farms, and then the devs could deal with that. Either way, that's a win win situation from my point of view.

Or, they could check it out and just be as puzzled as you and I are. The arc ISN'T as good as a DC or an arc with 10 plays but it ISN'T a farm, either. Perhaps the author just invited 1,000 of their closest friends to play.

(btw, this is not a self-interest post/idea since my own arc has only 139-140 plays and sits with yours in the Twilight Zone of 4-star rated arcs.)

I'm still playing MA and don't see the empty halls that you're talking about.

As for your idea, it's ok I suppose ... but like ITF's, players would just switch toons and have another go.

It's not like I'm advocating against the richer reward system we previously had. But when choosing between rewards and new adventures for my lowbie toons, I'll choose the game play every time ... especially MAarcs with well crafted stories and custom mobs. (A CoT or Freak in MA is still a CoT or Freak. Been there, done that.)

Thanks

I loved my DB/WP toon but wanted something slightly different - so I created a "Peter Pan" toon. DB was perfect for him with his little knives - but the only secondary that seemed to fit the concept (perfectly) was Super Reflexes.

While he's only 16 now, I placed him in Mid's and gave him every secondary poer except Elude, which I read here isn't needed or isn't so great, though I'm not sure why - but that's a different thread.

What concerns me is that with all those other powers it seemed like defenses weren't really all that high - and right now I am being one-shot killed like crazy.

So how does defense really work? (I usually make dam resist toons) ... and what can I do to make this character less vulnerable as he grows?

Any and all advice appreciated, as usual...

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I'd LOVE to have it where a zero and one star force commentary, but then the concern becomes whether or not you'll do "star griefing" in retaliation

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I think you nailed it here. I love leaving positive messages for arcs that I enjoy and highly rate. That's a no brainer. I'll even leave messages if I think an arc has great potential but left out an easily fixable key ingrediant that could really take the arc to a new level (imho).

But I wouldn't ever leave a message for an arc that I found to be truly bad... and by bad I mean that someone has taken less time creating their arc than it takes for me to play it. The ones that have "exrehwejej" as character discriptions.

On the other hand, I'm not sure that people take the time to READ the description of the mission before they enter - and that act alone would stop many low ratings. I had one guy who high-rated my arc and asked me to try his. But when I read his discription he told everyone upfront that they would need a team to complete ... so I passed it by. Enteriing an arc that truly advertises itself as tough, parody, fantasy, sci-fi ... if you do NOT like that genre ... should clue people in to take a pass at playing your arc. But some folks can't take the hint ... and then low rate you ... because they didn't "enjoy" your mission. And that sucks.

As for the OP's contention that people are singling out front page arcs, I only wish I were on the front page so I could be as frustrated. Like so many others, I poured everything into my arc in hopes it would be spotted by a dev and given the DC ranking ... but early on went from a 5-star rating down to 4-star where its stayed all this time. So congrats on wavering between 4 AND 5. Guess I'll have to try your arc, too. (AFTER I read the description, though.)

Issue 15: AFK
(After Fourteen ... Ka-BOOM!!!!!)

Don't think we'll ever get a cut scenes option, and I'm glad. Pretty sure that it would be grossly overused. If there were an option to bypass it, you'd probably lose the story content that people would overload in these things. And having created numerous TV commercials, I figure that even if you could somehow bypass the video and keep the dialogue, the effect would be like listening to TV without the picture on. What you're seeing should complement but not duplicate what you're hearing. (That's why God created radio.)

Just my 2 influence/merits/tickets, of course, and your smileage may vary.

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I'm just... sick of all the drama surrounding MA.

Let's look at what MA is all about. A creative release for users to make custom content. So why is it good to continually limit our options (like getting rid of chicken tug emote)? This is obviously done to try to stop farming. So instead of continually limiting us to try to stop farming how about just make MA missions give ZERO exp and ZERO tickets. Then return everything that was taken away and get rid of those ranged attacks in the melee set. Then release a memo saying something like "City of Heroes is one of the first MMOs to try to create this massive system. So of course we're not gonna get it right the first time. We apologize for the seemingly harsh response to something that some people don't think is a huge issue. However our original intention was to create a creative outlet for the fans. We wanted to encourage people to play but many people were only playing types of missions that we did not intend for. We tried stopping them but ultimately felt that we were trying so hard to stop it that we were starting to hurt the people that we originally made this for; the creative individuals. So we are getting rid of exp and tickets and reverting the system back to the way it was when it first came out. We hope you understand and that you continue to create and play missions with Mission Architect."

If this happened everything would revert back to how it was before MA came out. No exploitative farming, no more bannings.

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I agree with you! What's more, I think they should turn the clock back on EVERY CoX change - starting with ED in issue three! Do you have any idea of how many TV commericals I'm forced to watch each evening telling me how to cope with ED??????

But I can SOLVE your problem for you. You see, its as simple as turning off your experience option when you enter a MArc and destroying your MA tickets after you play. Wa-lah! No experience and no tickets, just like you wanted.

By doing this now, and reporting back to us the deep satisfaction this gives you, you can take a leadership role in getting the forum community to play MA in an entirely new way.

In fact, I invite you to begin using this new techniques right now. Just play MArc # 1224, Wicked Wicked Wonderland

When you come across the Mad Hatter. (and you will) explain to him your ideas over a spot of tea.. He can help you launch your innovative campaign. Your idea will then get all the attention it deserves.

Best wishes on your surefire success, and very merry unbirthday to you.