Alari_Azure

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One of the changes since two days ago is a mysterious reductiuon in the filesize from 100.00% to 87%. I cant find anything missing, either.

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My guess is that a group got changed from "custom" to "standard" and the related critters were dropped from the file - the drop looks just about exactly like 2 custom critters' worth.

This is why I have Subversion installed on my arc directory, and I tell everyone who will listen to do the same.

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Subversion? What is that and how does it affect custom groups/enemies?

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That is why I ask if I can work on it locally.

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Just tested and it's a "No" unless I missed an option. At best, you could copy/paste long test fields. Thus, we officially need some form of "Upload Changes" button amongst the "Republish and Play" button sets.

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I really like that idea. It would be so much easier to make a copy of the published arc to work on, offline. Then, just update the published version from there. Then we could test it before doing the upgrade on the live server, too.

Yeah, I might have to do it in steps. I did have that lovely little mapserver issue happen during one of my first major rewrites of one of mine, and I lost it all. Since I didn't have the sense to save the text to notepad or anything as I was working, I almost cried. I was so mad that I didn't touch mine for a while after that one, either. I was tempted to just give up because, at that time, only 1 or 2 people had even played it, and they were friends. I was debating why I even wanted to bother when there were so many thousands of arcs out there. But, I'm a stubborn Taurus and decided not to give up that easily.

I don't think you can, either. I have a major rewrite that I'm working on for one of mine and I will have a lot of stuff to change, and even more to add. If I get it almost done and my connection decides to go down I will cry.... a lot.

I figured that's what you meant. It would be better if we could actually assign events to particular spawn points, but just seeing where they are on a particular map will help immensely. As it is now, some maps are hard to figure out exactly where the break points are between front, middle and back. It's annoying when you try to set things in a certain area, but the MA switches it because of the way those things fall. It's enough to make you want to rip your hair out.

Actually, I like the idea of throwing in a wild goose chase or 2 for 'effect'. One of my arcs had something like that in one of the missions, but thanks to the file constraints, I had to cut them out. I had set up a couple of glowies that looked like they might be what the player should be looking for, but they were 'dummies'. I think it adds the flavor of a real search, where you might have to look in several 'possible' places before you find what you're really looking for at all.

The guide is a still a very nice little synopsis of ideas and suggestions to follow, for the most part, with the caveat that it's still ok to break the rules occasionally, if the story requires it. Beginners that are just starting out can find some good information that will, hopefully, help them to avoid some of the pitfalls that others have already experienced. Good job.

I'm still in limbo with mine. They're fairly new and haven't gotten a lot of attention yet. One of them is fairly solid, though I might want to tweak my custom group a wee bit when those options are available. I'm also working on a rewrite for my CoT mission that I might want to wait before I make the changes. I'd like to have the option to set triggers for a couple of items. But, if it's going to be months before it goes live, I might make the changes for now and fix it later, once I can set the triggers.

My 4 mission arc is still a work in progress. I really wish there was an improvement in file size so I could add more text to elaborate more on the background story. As it is now, I might consider cutting a mission or some of my customs to give me more room. I'm not happy with all of the cuts I had to make in order to fit in the 4th mission. I might decide to cut one completely, or possibly consolidate 2 into 1, somehow. I would rather not have to do that, but I might have no choice.

The changes sound like they're going to be a huge help in setting up missions. I love the idea of seeing the spawn points, to be able to tweak what goes where, and to choose appropriate maps to make it work better. I also like that we'll be able to set triggers for glowies to spawn after something else happens. All of the changes sound good. I can't wait to see exactly what the MA toolbox does. Now though, with all these changes, I'm definitely going to be sad that we still only have 3 slots available. I would love to have at least 5.

If you were on a different PC, that could be the difference. It seems that others have had similar problems with file sizes changing from one to another.

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Ah... so if I'm changing the description with each mission, I don't need the description in the character creator at all? The arc details the effects of a prolonged battle on the characters, so each time they show up their description changes. I know not everyone will check the info each time, but some will, and I'm a completist.

If that's correct, in my case I'll save space by leaving the character descriptions in the creator blank, right?

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Theoretically, if you want the descriptions to change, then just use the space in the mission itself. The one in the character creator would be unnecessary and just take up more space for that character. It might give you a tiny bit more wiggle room in the file size. If you multiply that small amount by the number of missions that use the character, that can definitely be a lot, especially if the description is long.

I have received another very helpful review from Pro Payne and I thought I would post it here as well. After getting this one, I am working on a rewrite for this arc to add a little more depth to the story and fix a few things that may be problematic as far as canon goes.

I've been getting some very good feedback from people and I think I can improve this story with the addition of clues and other things to expand upon it (more background and items related to the scroll and the spell that it contains) that will, hopefully, explain how this villain became a member of the Circle of Thorns and how he ended up with the scroll. It might not be completely 'kosher', but I hope it will be acceptable as a slight deviation from the 'norm'. In the end, I want it to be a much more interesting tale of a man that has been transformed by his greed and lust for power.

This rewrite might take me a few days to complete, but I will post here when the changes have been made. In the meantime, I hope people will perhaps try the arc in it's current form and retry it once it's been redone to see what you might think about the changes. All constructive feedback is always welcome. If something about the story bothers anyone, please let me know so I can consider it while I'm in the process of rewriting.

I will be checking back in here for any comments posted and will take all suggestions into consideration before the final changes are made. If something is posted after I have changed the story, then I will still consider them if I think they can be implemented in the remake to improve the story. One thing great about the MA is that the missions can be changed fairly easily if anything is a problem.

I hope this will be another arc to add to your list of fun ones to play and recommend to your friends. Thank you to everyone that has helped me in this process by sending feedback and those who have just played the arc. I really hope more people will enjoy this one and my other arcs. To me, it's all about having fun.

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Okay, the next review request was for:

#113615: Deal with the Devil’s Pawn (4 stars)

A young lady by the name of Angelique Pio approached Pro Payne with dire news: a Circle of Thorns mage named “the Devil’s Pawn” had stolen an artifact called Lucifer’s Scroll, with the intent of performing a ritual with it that would unleash the forces of evil and darkness on Paragon City and even the world. But these forces of darkness would be more than mere demon hordes – the scroll could plant the seeds of evil in the whole of humanity, twisted the whole human race into darkness, and making us all slaves to evil.
Pro Payne quickly infiltrated the lair of the Devil’s Pawn – a section of Orenbega. There he retrieved Lucifer’s Scroll, and defeated the Devil’s Pawn.

Pros: This is a single mission arc, which is a pro if you’re looking for quick action without getting involved in a long arc (and I have a special appreciation for one or two mission arcs that are not farms. Personally, I like variety in arc length, and the fact I get to intersperse “epic” 5 mission arcs with much shorter single mission ones is a good thing. Also, the mission itself is well done – the text is good, the mission goals clear, and nice use of color formatting. Make no mistake: the mission is well done, and fun. So why four stars?

Cons: Well, before I answer that, let me first list a few things that had no bearing on my rating. First, it’s worth mentioning that some folks may get a little leery of such direct references to the devil and satanic artifacts. Personally, I don’t see a problem at all, and I’m not suggesting a change to something more ‘sanitized’ (I think that gets done too often anyway), but it’s worth mentioning so the author can get a bit of a head start on thinking of how to handle the situation in the event you do see a complaint show up under the mission (I sincerely hope it won’t). Second, personally, the Circle of Thorns (and Orenbega) are not my favorite villain group, especially pre-30, when the spectrals can get to be such a huge pain in the butt (especially if you are resistance-based, rather than defense-based, which makes it easier for them to stack those irritating to-hit debuffs on you). I’m not at all sure if the map was a chosen one, or a random map (e.g. random medium, random large, etc.) – the teleport portals on the map I got were only mildly obnoxious: not bad enough to really raise my hackles, but enough to delay mission completion. Yeah, it sucks, since, as the author, you didn’t get to design the faction or the map, but I list it as a “con” because you’re certain to run across folks who will poorly rate the mission just based on the choice of the Circle of Thorns, and Orenbega. (Yes, you can make that arguments for any villain group and map – you can’t please everyone – but you’re probably going to draw slightly more than average in this case.)
Also, another minor “nit” (again, not related to the rating at all) – the use of the Circle here is a little “non-canon:” not egregious, but just as an FYI. Specifically, the mission set up treats the Circle as a cabal of mages (which they are), but implies that they are “modern day folks” dabbling in the black arts. They’re not: (warning, spoiler coming: the Circle are mostly the discorporated spirits of the ancient Orenbegans – literally the original Circle of Thorns – possessing the bodies of “modern day folks” who were either lured into or forced into a ritual that effectively kills them and allows the Orenbegan spirit to possess the body. So, most of the Circle are not modern-day people who have been inducted into the Circle and taught the magical arcs: they’re actually long-dead mages possessing the bodies of the living. (And this does violate the description given for “the Devil’s Pawn.”) Now, to be fair, there game does at least hint that some Circle members are modern-day mages, and, for reasons that were convenient to the Circle, were allowed to “keep their souls and bodies” rather than becoming a vessel to house a “reborn Orenbegan mage” – but these are evidently so rare that I can’t think of any main “named” characters in the game that fall into this category. But the net result is that if you treat a Circle mage as anything other than a long-dead Orenbegan possessing a hijacked “modern-day” body, then people who are familiar with the game’s canon are very likely to see that as non-canonical.

Okay, though, so why 4 stars? Well, I have to be completely honest – it has to do with the fundamentals of how I decide on a rating (which is useful to list here, since most of the people who are reviewing arcs at least make a mention of their ‘criteria’). This isn’t exhaustive, by the way:

My baseline for any arc is 3 stars, and my base expectation is that “it should be as good as a newspaper or police scanner mission.” So if you write an arc with a fairly short, but coherent, briefing and send-off, is one mission long, has objectives similar to what is found in ‘paper missions (for example, get the glowie, and defeat the boss ‘guarding it’), and minimal text (a clue for the glowie, and dialog for the boss), that’s three stars (or at least what I’d rate it – other reviews certainly have differing criteria). Okay, now do that really well: add a patrol or two, with some text. Add formatting and coloring. Expand a bit what the boss says – well, that’s a definitely improvement, and that bumps the arc up to four stars.

So, for a single mission arc, what would I suggest to bump it up even more? Well, honestly, there are probably several things: multiple interesting characters, possibly part of a custom group (Slash DeMento did this well), is one. But, in my opinion, the easiest one is just to use mission objects to tell a more substantial “story” that unfolds as you play through the mission.

Of course, I can’t write that story for you, but I can tell you there’s a lot of potential for one built into your idea for the mission: you’ve got a deranged Circle mage in possession of a powerful magical artifact (apparently one that belongs to or was made by the devil himself). Perhaps clues in the mission could tell us more about how he came to acquire it, or what the ritual entails – perhaps there’s a sub-boss, a demon or something (or another Circle mage) whose been summoned in and has filled the Devil’s Pawn with promises of glory and power if he’ll just complete the ritual. Honestly, I don’t want to brainstorm too many, because your other arcs make it clear you’ve got good creative potential for writing interesting, character-driven stories, and I’d like to see where you can take this.

So, the bottom line: as is, it’s a “jazzed up” newspaper mission (which I’d typically rate 4 stars, which is exactly what I did) – the next step would be fleshing out and expanding the story, which really boils down to giving the player more to do in the mission to drive an expanded story forward.

(Note, I’m certainly not suggesting it needs to be spread out over multiple missions – but, to me, a 5-star single mission arc actually needs to tell an unfolding, “mini-story-arc” as the mission progresses.

Finally, just a few typos and notes: very minor.

One, one of your patrols makes a statement to the effect of “enter our Circle” when referring to my invasion of their lair. It just struck me as a little weird, because it made it sound like I was trying to actually join them – it’d probably make a little more sense for them to refer to me as “entering their lair” or “invading their lair” (or something similar).
Also, Devil’s Pawn (whose dialog I really liked – good job of evil archmage “over the top” blustering) accuses me of an “interuption of my work.” (the typo being that there are two r’s in interruption.)


Whew! And now, back to the game! Pro Payne will probably take a short break from posting reviews for a very simple reason – they’re very time consuming, and as he gets to higher and higher levels, I’ve got to sink more and more time into playing him to keep his advancement reasonably fast. That doesn’t mean that I’m not taking any new review requests. I’m still looking for arc suggestions, and if you’d like a review, as opposed to a simple playthrough, feel free to ask. But I’m probably going to limit myself to one per week, which means either I might post a review for you after a delay (as happened with Geek Boy) or I might shuffle your arc around in my queue to try to have only about one “review request” per week.

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Thank you, again, for reviewing another of my arcs. This was my very first attempt at creating one, so I guess that's reflected in the lack of story developement and use of mission objectives. I'm debating whether I should give this one a full revamp or not, because I have another custom group that I have been mulling over a story that will tie them to Slash DeMento. I'm debating whether I should replace this arc or the shorter version of Slash (The Stolen Weapons).

Since I've only been playing for a year, much of the canon still escapes me. I do want to try to stick to it as much as I can, so I do appreciate any feedback that can help me in that regard. That was one of the main reasons for creating my own enemy groups. At least that way, I can tie them loosely to canonical elements (like Slash's ties to the Outcasts) without heading into direct conflict with canon. Since most of my chars are magic based, I liked the idea of using the CoT as a story element to fight. I agree, they can be a real pain in the butt because of their debuffs. Also, I think the map is set to random, but I will double check it. Some of those portals seem not to work as they should. I've had problems where I've gone through one and it just turned me around and sent me back the way I came.

I'm glad you caught the typos/misspellings, and the reference to 'enter our Circle' (canon smacks me again, lol). I can fix those easily when I get in game. I might at least tweak this one a bit and leave it up until I decide what to do with the one I'm currently working on. That might be a good idea, since it may take a while to finish the other one. Maybe with just a little more time invested this one could be a much more interesting story. I'll see what I can come up with to make it better. If the 'Lucifer' references are a real problem, I might just change it to some 'unknown' ancient entity with distant ties to the CoT, or a 'mythical legend' that has been lost to history.

I'm thankful that using standard enemies will allow for a lot more text in the form of clues, etc., that I can use for story telling. Using customs makes it much harder to add that kind of content in the amount of detail that I would like to use without an arc being limited to one or two missions.

Thanks again for the review. This kind of feedback and encouragement really gets my creative juices flowing.

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See this thread for details of Pro Payne's adventures in going from 1-50 in the MA.

Sorry about that. I'm such a n00b on the boards, I posted in the wrong thread, then edited the wrong post.

I realize that you have a long list, but I would definitely appreciate it if you could add this one to your queue.

Arc Name: Meet the Demon Spawn
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Alari Azure/Telstar
Are you ready to accept a challenge from Paragon City's newest gang of thugs and their leader, Slash DeMento? Hang on to your hat and be ready for a wild ride. These guys are new in town and they want to make a big impression. The bad kind! After Slash gave Frostfire a nasty beating, they left the Outcasts behind to make much bigger plans. Can you help Flux keep these guys from getting too big for their britches?

The enemy group is all custom. Their descriptions add a bit of background and flavor to the story. There are no EB/AVs, so it can be soloed, but there are a few enemies that can be tough. Squishies and lower levels may have some problems with a few of them. None are extremely hard, but it may depend on whether you're solo or go with a team. If soloing, I suggest using a strong tank/scrapper (or equivalent villain, if so inclined). There are a few axers, including 1 Lt and 2 bosses, that may be brutal on other character builds. All are set on standard difficulty, but they can still pack a whollop. The enemy mix is similar to Outcasts with a few additions as far as weapon/power choices go. Basically, it's a gang that has a wide range of backgrounds as some have joined their ranks after the main chars left the Outcasts.

Arc ID: 151099
Faction: Heroic

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Okay, the next review request was for:

#113615: Deal with the Devil’s Pawn (4 stars)

A young lady by the name of Angelique Pio approached Pro Payne with dire news: a Circle of Thorns mage named “the Devil’s Pawn” had stolen an artifact called Lucifer’s Scroll, with the intent of performing a ritual with it that would unleash the forces of evil and darkness on Paragon City and even the world. But these forces of darkness would be more than mere demon hordes – the scroll could plant the seeds of evil in the whole of humanity, twisted the whole human race into darkness, and making us all slaves to evil.
Pro Payne quickly infiltrated the lair of the Devil’s Pawn – a section of Orenbega. There he retrieved Lucifer’s Scroll, and defeated the Devil’s Pawn.

Pros: This is a single mission arc, which is a pro if you’re looking for quick action without getting involved in a long arc (and I have a special appreciation for one or two mission arcs that are not farms. Personally, I like variety in arc length, and the fact I get to intersperse “epic” 5 mission arcs with much shorter single mission ones is a good thing. Also, the mission itself is well done – the text is good, the mission goals clear, and nice use of color formatting. Make no mistake: the mission is well done, and fun. So why four stars?

Cons: Well, before I answer that, let me first list a few things that had no bearing on my rating. First, it’s worth mentioning that some folks may get a little leery of such direct references to the devil and satanic artifacts. Personally, I don’t see a problem at all, and I’m not suggesting a change to something more ‘sanitized’ (I think that gets done too often anyway), but it’s worth mentioning so the author can get a bit of a head start on thinking of how to handle the situation in the event you do see a complaint show up under the mission (I sincerely hope it won’t). Second, personally, the Circle of Thorns (and Orenbega) are not my favorite villain group, especially pre-30, when the spectrals can get to be such a huge pain in the butt (especially if you are resistance-based, rather than defense-based, which makes it easier for them to stack those irritating to-hit debuffs on you). I’m not at all sure if the map was a chosen one, or a random map (e.g. random medium, random large, etc.) – the teleport portals on the map I got were only mildly obnoxious: not bad enough to really raise my hackles, but enough to delay mission completion. Yeah, it sucks, since, as the author, you didn’t get to design the faction or the map, but I list it as a “con” because you’re certain to run across folks who will poorly rate the mission just based on the choice of the Circle of Thorns, and Orenbega. (Yes, you can make that arguments for any villain group and map – you can’t please everyone – but you’re probably going to draw slightly more than average in this case.)
Also, another minor “nit” (again, not related to the rating at all) – the use of the Circle here is a little “non-canon:” not egregious, but just as an FYI. Specifically, the mission set up treats the Circle as a cabal of mages (which they are), but implies that they are “modern day folks” dabbling in the black arts. They’re not: (warning, spoiler coming: the Circle are mostly the discorporated spirits of the ancient Orenbegans – literally the original Circle of Thorns – possessing the bodies of “modern day folks” who were either lured into or forced into a ritual that effectively kills them and allows the Orenbegan spirit to possess the body. So, most of the Circle are not modern-day people who have been inducted into the Circle and taught the magical arcs: they’re actually long-dead mages possessing the bodies of the living. (And this does violate the description given for “the Devil’s Pawn.”) Now, to be fair, there game does at least hint that some Circle members are modern-day mages, and, for reasons that were convenient to the Circle, were allowed to “keep their souls and bodies” rather than becoming a vessel to house a “reborn Orenbegan mage” – but these are evidently so rare that I can’t think of any main “named” characters in the game that fall into this category. But the net result is that if you treat a Circle mage as anything other than a long-dead Orenbegan possessing a hijacked “modern-day” body, then people who are familiar with the game’s canon are very likely to see that as non-canonical.

Okay, though, so why 4 stars? Well, I have to be completely honest – it has to do with the fundamentals of how I decide on a rating (which is useful to list here, since most of the people who are reviewing arcs at least make a mention of their ‘criteria’). This isn’t exhaustive, by the way:

My baseline for any arc is 3 stars, and my base expectation is that “it should be as good as a newspaper or police scanner mission.” So if you write an arc with a fairly short, but coherent, briefing and send-off, is one mission long, has objectives similar to what is found in ‘paper missions (for example, get the glowie, and defeat the boss ‘guarding it’), and minimal text (a clue for the glowie, and dialog for the boss), that’s three stars (or at least what I’d rate it – other reviews certainly have differing criteria). Okay, now do that really well: add a patrol or two, with some text. Add formatting and coloring. Expand a bit what the boss says – well, that’s a definitely improvement, and that bumps the arc up to four stars.

So, for a single mission arc, what would I suggest to bump it up even more? Well, honestly, there are probably several things: multiple interesting characters, possibly part of a custom group (Slash DeMento did this well), is one. But, in my opinion, the easiest one is just to use mission objects to tell a more substantial “story” that unfolds as you play through the mission.

Of course, I can’t write that story for you, but I can tell you there’s a lot of potential for one built into your idea for the mission: you’ve got a deranged Circle mage in possession of a powerful magical artifact (apparently one that belongs to or was made by the devil himself). Perhaps clues in the mission could tell us more about how he came to acquire it, or what the ritual entails – perhaps there’s a sub-boss, a demon or something (or another Circle mage) whose been summoned in and has filled the Devil’s Pawn with promises of glory and power if he’ll just complete the ritual. Honestly, I don’t want to brainstorm too many, because your other arcs make it clear you’ve got good creative potential for writing interesting, character-driven stories, and I’d like to see where you can take this.

So, the bottom line: as is, it’s a “jazzed up” newspaper mission (which I’d typically rate 4 stars, which is exactly what I did) – the next step would be fleshing out and expanding the story, which really boils down to giving the player more to do in the mission to drive an expanded story forward.

(Note, I’m certainly not suggesting it needs to be spread out over multiple missions – but, to me, a 5-star single mission arc actually needs to tell an unfolding, “mini-story-arc” as the mission progresses.

Finally, just a few typos and notes: very minor.

One, one of your patrols makes a statement to the effect of “enter our Circle” when referring to my invasion of their lair. It just struck me as a little weird, because it made it sound like I was trying to actually join them – it’d probably make a little more sense for them to refer to me as “entering their lair” or “invading their lair” (or something similar).
Also, Devil’s Pawn (whose dialog I really liked – good job of evil archmage “over the top” blustering) accuses me of an “interuption of my work.” (the typo being that there are two r’s in interruption.)


Whew! And now, back to the game! Pro Payne will probably take a short break from posting reviews for a very simple reason – they’re very time consuming, and as he gets to higher and higher levels, I’ve got to sink more and more time into playing him to keep his advancement reasonably fast. That doesn’t mean that I’m not taking any new review requests. I’m still looking for arc suggestions, and if you’d like a review, as opposed to a simple playthrough, feel free to ask. But I’m probably going to limit myself to one per week, which means either I might post a review for you after a delay (as happened with Geek Boy) or I might shuffle your arc around in my queue to try to have only about one “review request” per week.

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Thank you, again, for reviewing another of my arcs. This was my very first attempt at creating one, so I guess that's reflected in the lack of story developement and use of mission objectives. I'm debating whether I should give this one a full revamp or not, because I have another custom group that I have been mulling over a story that will tie them to Slash DeMento. I'm debating whether I should replace this arc or the shorter version of Slash (The Stolen Weapons).

Since I've only been playing for a year, much of the canon still escapes me. I do want to try to stick to it as much as I can, so I do appreciate any feedback that can help me in that regard. That was one of the main reasons for creating my own enemy groups. At least that way, I can tie them loosely to canonical elements (like Slash's ties to the Outcasts) without heading into direct conflict with canon. Since most of my chars are magic based, I liked the idea of using the CoT as a story element to fight. I agree, they can be a real pain in the butt because of their debuffs. Also, I think the map is set to random, but I will double check it. Some of those portals seem not to work as they should. I've had problems where I've gone through one and it just turned me around and sent me back the way I came.

I'm glad you caught the typos/misspellings, and the reference to 'enter our Circle' (canon smacks me again, lol). I can fix those easily when I get in game. I might at least tweak this one a bit and leave it up until I decide what to do with the one I'm currently working on. That might be a good idea, since it may take a while to finish the other one. Maybe with just a little more time invested this one could be a much more interesting story. I'll see what I can come up with to make it better. If the 'Lucifer' references are a real problem, I might just change it to some 'unknown' ancient entity with distant ties to the CoT, or a 'mythical legend' that has been lost to history.

I'm thankful that using standard enemies will allow for a lot more text in the form of clues, etc., that I can use for story telling. Using customs makes it much harder to add that kind of content in the amount of detail that I would like to use without an arc being limited to one or two missions.

Thanks again for the review. This kind of feedback and encouragement really gets my creative juices flowing.


Re-posted because I accidentally deleted the wrong post. I'm such a n00b!

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I'll check that, but I thought that was the character descruption we create for each mission we use the character in, not the big 1000 character description in the character creator.

Edit: I checked and I'm right. The description you get when you click on "Info," whether it's from right clicking on the character or from the "Action" drop down is the short description you can create each time you use the character in a mission. I've yet to find a way of accessing the long description that you can write at the end of the character creator. If you can't access other than as a creator, then it makes no sense to waste the memory unless you need to add info that's impiortant for you to remember later. In which case, since I'm familiar enough with all my custom characters thus far, it makes sense for me not to use that field... correct?

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If your custom chars already have descriptions from the creator, you don't need to add anything in the mission space for a description (such as boss descriptions). Just leave it blank. It defaults to what you put in when you created the character. If you add a description into the mission, it just takes up more space because it overrides the version you already have on the character. You can always go back and edit the char to add a description that way if you didn't write one at creation. I think the only time you might want to put a description in the mission is when you're using standard chars (not sure on that) that you want to make 'unique'.

There is a certain 'lag' time between hitting 'publish' and having it show up in your list. The first mission I published ended up being published twice, because I thought it didn't work the first time.

EDIT: Oops...I somehow missed the post above.

But, I'm thinking that's what happened.

I'm wondering if it's related to the fact that there seems to have been (another?) reduction in text limits. There do seem to be a lot of unexplained 'bugs' that can't be found because they're 'invisible'.

Oops.

Since it seemed a response to me I 'assumed'. I'm sure we all knows what happens when we do that.

Thanks for checking, though.

It's good to know that it will start. I did some major changes to the enemy group, trying to find a way to get the mix of chars I want without going over the 100k limit.

Thanks for checking that for me.

In another thread, someone said the amount of text allowed has been reduced. If that's the case, then a lot of arcs will be 'broken' for no apparent reason.

Since I like to give my enemies a little more 'character' and use their descriptions to add background to the story, I find myself having to cut them down or eliminate characters in order to stay within the 100k limit. It's hard to find a happy medium. I really wish they would give us a bit more file space.

As it is, it's very difficult, if not impossible, to make a 5 mission arc with all custom chars unless you make a very small group. That tends to make custom groups a bit boring when you keep seeing the same ones over and over. It works ok if it's a military type enemy, but not as well if it's a large street gang. I really don't want to have to add 'standards' in, just to add 'variety'. It tends to mess up the level ranges too much.

This has been one of my worst nightmares using the text system in game. It makes no sense to me whatsoever for them to have a text field where you're supposed to be able to copy/paste, but if you do, you end up with errors that seem to occur randomly. I've had major issues trying to find those invisible errors, many of which are only a misplaced 'space'.

If they've cut down the size of text fields anywhere, there should be a popup or something that tells us about it. I'm beginning to think the only way to stay within the 100k is to make single missions if you want to tell a decent story. Makes me wonder why they bothered to allow us to make 5. I guess they just want us to use standard enemies. It's like giving a kid an ice cream cone then slapping it out of his hand after the first lick.

Have you edited your enemy group or changed any of the characters in that group? I've done a lot of changing in my group lately and have found that it does affect the playability of the arc.

I have also found that just changing the character descriptions can affect the overall size of the file, too, since long descriptions make those chars take up more file space. (didn't dawn on me before. DOH!)

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I already tried shrinking the file. Didn't work. I've turned it over to NCSoft, who said they'd have a Senior Support Person try to find out what the problem is.

I took a look at the text file and a couple instances where the html code for a non-breaking space (&nbsp was used where it didn't seem necessary. That may be an issue that they need to look at. In any case, if it *is* in the MA coding, it's hidden and needs to be accounted for so it will show as an error.

Frankly, while there are many aspects of the MA that are great. The coding could use some work.

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I was editing one of my arcs earlier and I had one of those wonderful problems show up. But, it did flag it as an error. I copied it to notepad several times, but it still kept coming up as an html code problem. Somehow, while trying to edit some lines in the game, I ended up having the funky problem with things not pasting where I tried to paste them. In the process, a space was placed inside one of the color codes that was not visible because it was at a place that had it showing partly on one line and part on another. They really need to fix the wordwrap problem inside the text fields. For some reason, it doesn't work the way it's set up now.

Maybe the problem isn't so much 'the star system' as it is the '5 star system'. Perhaps it would work better if it were a 9 star system. That way the numbers would tend to even out a little more when averaged, and it would give people a better range of possibilities to choose for honest ratings. The percentage of ratings would balance out and give a clearer picture of what most people thought about it as the number of plays increased. If an arc could maintain a high rating (6/9 or higher) then it would seem to be held in higher esteem by the greatest number of players.

Just a thought.

I played this arc last night and really did enjoy it. Some of the things mentioned above have already been changed. I liked the time loop concept so, even though the first couple of missions were a bit tedious because of the repetition, it was still a good hook that made me want to continue, just to see what was actually happening.

The changing size of the maps and the regression of the contact's statements gave me the impression that I was actually moving backwards in time, and whatever was going on was affecting the warehouse, making it smaller as 'real' time passed. It would be nice if there was some kind of explanation along those lines, like it wasn't just a time loop, but it was an alteration of time, too.

I thought the glowies were a wee bit over the top. Even though they were a nice touch of humor, I think they could be reduced in number. I felt like I had to click them all to find the right ones and, since the clues associated with them made me chuckle, I felt obliged to do it for that reason as well.

I loved the fact that the enemies were not mega-powered. They were easy enough to be able to move through the arc quickly enough so that having to repeat it wasn't as annoying as it could have been if they were too hard to take down. Very well done.

I gave it 5 stars because it was such a fun story.

Excellent post. I agree that people should be very careful about asking for a review, especially if they are not willing to take the criticism that comes with it in stride. I realize that most people that ask for one are just hoping for the reviewer to gush all over it and find it to be the most wonderful thing that has ever come out of the MA, so they have a better chance to make it to DC or HoF. When they end up being criticized for a minor or major flaw (in the opinion of the reviewer), they sometimes tend to overreact and start trying to defend themselves by criticizing the critic.

If they would take a step back and think about what the reviewer said, they might just find that they are correct. In that case, it gives them the opportunity to go back and do a little adjusting to fix those flaws so the arc will have a much better chance to get the rewards that they are looking for in the end.

However, there are just 2 minor problems that I found in this very well done post.

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You’re decision whether or not to retract should be made by yourself, not through public debate. Public debate weakens your position with your reader, as invariably you will be drawn into personal conflict.

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Should be 'Your'.

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Whether they enjoyed it or not, someone has taken the time to publicize your efforts, and at the very least disserves to be thanked for that.


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Should be 'deserves'.