Clave_Dark_5
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:*cough* Joss Whedon *cough*Originally Posted by Agent White
I will say 10's final moments probably make me dislike Davies more than anything though. I've never seen an author so thoroughly torture and punish a character.
Those final two episodes made me glad Davies was leaving (which was a difficult thing as I admire him for having brought back the show and making it work), they were terrible, a few good Wilf moments aside. -
For a set I'd choose Super Reflexes. For a single power, NINJA RUN!!! I've had dreams where I could do stuff like that...
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One funny thing I think when I see this thread is how I'm no stranger to suddenly going back to some toon I created years ago and playing it. Just the other day I pulled out my Merc/Traps MM for example. So saying I don't see set X much anymore sort of doesn't work for me. :P
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Dark Miasma for me too please, it's just so awesome.
That said, I have tons of alts but not a lot of toons who've gotten past 30 or so. Thinking over them, I can't say I really have any repeats except for SR, one a stalker and a scrapper. I've enjoyed each and every set I get that far and probably feel some sort of rerun burn-out on the others which keeps them from grabbing me so much that I get them past 30. But I do still like them.
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First Q: sounds waaay too specific for what the AE is capable of, so I'll go with no.
Second Q I can't answer as I haven't put one of those in my arcs yet. There's a fair amount of stuff in AE that is just plain buggy, and this sounds like one of them. -
I'm over 2 bill easy but I doubt I have more than say 4, so D for me too.
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Brief update: one can tie the enemy-less ally to spawn after another mish requirement has been completed. It's of course hard to guarantee that the ally will spawn in the same room as the completed objective, but sometimes 'close' is close enough. Astute use of the auto-spoken lines and the then-dropped clue could be put to good use by a crafty writer.
Which doesn't still help my above arc, but I'm currently working on a shorter one and was faced the same problem and though y'all might like to hear this... -
Quote:Because I often only get a couple of hours a week to play and often that time gets thrown away working on an AE arc. Today I just spent like an hour alone on pulling my hair out trying to find a &*@#$ arc that had my stuff appear correctly (front, middle, back; not front, middle, back +1 thing you had set for front anyways, for chuckles): bring up mish, edit mode, change map, save&test, go in, explore, curse loudly when my front thing's at the back again, exit, bring up mish, etc. Over a dozen times (problem solved tho).Originally Posted by PoliceWoman
why not?
But I'll give this list a shot. In order to keep this thread short, I'll just leave in the one's I've played....
Fear and Loathing on Striga #350522 by @FredrikSvanberg
Against the Wickerwork Khan #346904 by @Clave Dark 5(Terrible arc BTW
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Drakule vs. the Werewolf Bikers from Hell #340316 by @LaserJesus
#298290: Papers and Paychecks by @PW
#379488 "Storming Citadel" by @MrCaptainMan
Dhahabu Kingdom and the Indelible Curse of Hate: #367872
Dhahabu Kingdom and the Unfathomable Nightmare of Sand: #453511
The Echo #1688 @MrCaptainMan
Task Force Mutternacht #349522 @twelfth [At least I think I've played this one]
#517859 "Crime is Art and Art is Crime" by @TwoFlower
Total I've played: 10, HA! I think there's one or two from that list I have played but can't be sure of by title alone.
I enjoy running AE arcs but sometimes when I do play, call me crazy, nuts, but I do like to team, which means PUGs. As I do not team lead well, I am loath to try and team build, much less "non-farm AE anyone?" Otherwise I have to so0lo - which is fine as I then have time to read stuff and not rush through.
As for stuff I liked? Everything's been at least as good as what the devs pump out - better even, judging by the constant kvetching about the Well storyline... -
IIRC, nothing that takes places with a set of <> is allowable, so no italics, bolded text, colors, etc.
FYI everyone.
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Quote:Never said it wasn't.Originally Posted by Darth_Khasei
The ability to make a BM farm was there from the beginning.
Exploits were definitely detrimental to the AE population and had nothing to do with "show[ing] where the larger demand was/is" - people will cheat en mass when the opportunity arises. That tells us nothing about what they didn't do to get what they took. The exploits disgusted a lot of players (both those who were and weren't interested in AE stories) who then turned away from the AE because:Quote:Originally Posted by Darth_Khasei
Exploit farms did nothing more than to show where the larger demand was in the MA.
-they had to put up with constant farm-team spam in broadcast
-the casual willingness of fellow players to resort to outright exploiting
-serious crowding issues in Atlas Park and the AE buildings (often equals lag)
-playing with these new 50s who had to be told how to get from Atlas Park to anywhere else
The low post count of this forum compared to the past is good evidence of this, as is the dwindling number of "usual suspects" who make those posts.
You're judging the past interest in AE based on the current situation, forgetting the history and ignoring the new-shiny effect of the devs moving their focus in the game elsewhere, as well as the need for "improved search function, [and] removal of broken arcs" (your words there). If the devs moved some focus back into the AE system in some major way, say just by repairing those and other problems, many people would follow.Quote:Originally Posted by Darth_Khasei
Yet the fact remains the vast majority of the people that play this game do not play it for the devs or anyone else's story. The other issues just compound the initial low demand.
The AE system does needs dev attention because it's under-performing, much like stalkers or PVP. If we have a system in place for something in CoH, it should be the best system in place that we can have, even if "not everyone" wants to play it. -
Quote:I've bolded the art I think is way wrong. My first arc was a silly trifle of a joke, based around rabbit puns and was published like 2 months after AE went live. Its number of plays quickly went up and up and up, and it's now sitting at about 130 or so. Once the AE meow farm - monkey farm - et cetera farms started and then chased off a ton of people*, it's gotten maybe a dozen plays. On the other hand my arc Against The Wickerwork Khan has actually won a player's choice catagory last year (see my avatar tag there) and iirc, it's still under a hundred plays.Originally Posted by Darth_Khasei
I think the reality of the demand for players to play any other players arc and the perception by some arc makers is way way off and has been from the beginning.
Back in " the old days", people actually did want to play player-created stories. Some of that was no doubt just "the new shiny", but the urge did exist, once. These days start a thread asking people why they avoid the place and you'll get responses about it being too hard to sort through the chaff, the rewards being off balance with the rest of the game (including nothing incarnate), how the history cited above left a bad taste in their mouths, but very few about "I don't care what other players have written (except from those sorts who like to pop in and troll a thread).
So the devs could actually do something about all this, refocusing the new shiny effect on the AE in part for a bit and it would no doubt draw a few more people to look at and play some story content rather another farm. If they wanted to. But they seem to enjoy writing up more trials instead.
*Some of what chased off a ton of folks was the dev response of course. -
Quote:Be gone from this realm, evil Dark One!Originally Posted by Dark One
Howard the Duck was awesome and Willow was fun.
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Quote:HA! Well spotted.Originally Posted by Daemodand
"Look how ugly I am with my Greek-god-like physique!"
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Sit here smugly while typing in all-caps messages on the soon-to-be-shut-down forums such edifying messages as "SEE? I TOLD YOU SO!"
Oh wait, that's not me, that would be the usual contingent of doom-sayers. But you just wait and see. Then I'll be able to say I told you so! -
I think whenever a pre-existing group gets changed or added to, such as the CoT, it quacks up any mission using them, yes. I seem to recall having heard that arcs got messed up from some AE authors when the CoT changes rolled in. Not long ago, they apparently* added some females into a formerly all-male group** I use in my Day Job Hell arc and it got borked as well.
*At least I think they did, I can recall having ever seen female models in there before. After fixing my arc it seems like they predominated the group! On top of that, they didn't show up as models to recolor, just the males did, but they often spawned female. That Mercy Island sewer water just canNOT be good for you...
**You know, that one group who hangs out around the sewer works, throwing up a lot? I can't seem to recall the name right now and Paragonwiki is down for the SOPA protest - damn you Congress! -
Yeah, please spill the beans if you've found another problem.
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Cool news, thanks you two!
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Quote:"Until we can figure out a way to charge you for stuff inside the AE, please do not hold your breath - non-breathing customers don't pay their monthly subscription nor buy stuff from the market."Originally Posted by Kheldarn
Mark Andrew Shinner: Is there anything in planning or possibly development stages (that you can talk about) that involves the AE and the creation of missions? Things like different and/or more complex mission objectives or chat bubbles from NPC's, or any various other things? To clarify, NPC's from off-stage of the AE mission.
City of Heroes: In Issue 22, with the revamped Banished Pantheon, variants of the new level 40-54 Banished Pantheon can be accessed in MA.
But hey, at least this time around the AE critter creating screen got character rotation arrows beneath the characters!!! Goo look for it in the patch notes, second to last item!
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Quote:Yep, unguarded. Nope, can't use that sort of map at all for the mish I have planned; didn't know that though, so thanks anyways.Originally Posted by Evangel_NA
Nope, if the ally is unguarded the clue auto-drops at mission entrance as it is considered "complete". The only workaround to that is if the mission has an outdoor/indoor element (i.e. the breakout map) and the ally spawns inside. Since you start outside the clue won't auto-drop and will only hit when you "interact" with the ally. So that is one workaround but gives you a limited number of maps you can work with.
Also, good advice, also unusable for what I have planned, completely. My unguarded allies are all going to be set for the "unconscious" poses as I want them to appear like dead bodies (and yet be able to speak and possibly move... you'd have to see the arc), so there can't really be much leading around... then again, I could bend my story a little maybe. I'll be considering this I guess, instead of - you know - being able to use the AE "like it should be".Quote:Originally Posted by Evangel_NA
There really isn't much you can do, but one thing I will tend to do is use the ally as an escort or, if you want them to be combat-ready, find another way to introduce the clue. What I will do sometimes is have a glowie so that I know it will spawn further into the mission than the ally, then have the glowie nav text say "Meet <person>, then lead them to <glowie name>." Technically the meeting of the person isn't necessary, but from the nav text it appears to be, then have the glowie be something where the ally "explains" their story to you and that way you can give the ally a clue.
You noticed that too eh? As Freedom's gone along I've come to the same conclusion. The devs are focusing on two things now - end game content and stuff to sell us in the store. They've said specifically, that I've read here, that they want to try and come up with "consumables" for sale, temp use things like "Summon Warwolf, five uses", not just all one-time purchases like power sets. And nothing for AE can be or is sold that way except arc slots.Quote:Originally Posted by Evangel_NA
It's a horrible and annoying workaround for a bug that should be very very very easy to fix but of course AE gets the bottom of the work-order because you can't trick freedumbers into buying new toys with AE so it's not making them money. AE used to get slow fixes before freedumb, now fixes are almost non-existent...
But who the bloody hell wants to buy a "consumable" for an under-supported system?
Purchasable arc slots are also why we'll only see a meager few DCs handed out - a DC means the author gets an extra arc slot without paying for one, so it's just not in their "best interest". At this point I'm ready to delete old arcs to make way for new ones, rather than buy another slot.
Anyways, rant over.
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Heck, I'm still holding out for an auto-50 level token (and I'm only half-joking). For $20, we'll be able to level-bump to 50 one character, so we can begin to endlessly replay all the end-game content the devs and players can't make/get enough of - right out of the box!
This will also be about "time vs. convenience" as well: you can level up a toon yourself, but if you'd rather pay not to...
I'd not buy one (end-game content can go swallow rotten eggs, far as I care), but I'm sure plenty of people would buy them and it would be a quick and easy income stream. -
Quote:Emphasis mine. There are probably hundreds of good arcs to play in there. Sadly, there's hundred of thousands of junk ones, so the "lists of good arcs" over on the MA forum are a godsend. Or yes, start a new thread "Hi, I'm looking for some arc suggestions for stories like X, with Y in them and featuring some Z" and people will offer suggestions for you.Originally Posted by Sailboat
So I'll recommend the Mission Architect stories instead. While lots of people use Architect only for farms, there are a ton of fun and interesting stories in the MA if you look for them.
A good place to start is in the MA forum. The stickied threads are a gold mine, but don't be shy -- if you put up a thread asking for interesting stories you'll get lots of suggestions.
Don't let anyone tell you differently, the MA is one of this game's strongest content, even considering the red-headed stepchild treatment it's been getting lately. -
I liked that mission back when I ran it and I think I stumbled into the same thing, but it's been awhile. My question would be did you see an XP hit because an ally was fighting with you? "But he's me, so logically yes all the XP should be going to me!"
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So I'm working on a new arc and in one mission I have about five clues that drop, each one advancing the story along in chronological order until the last one. Trouble is, two of them drop from an ally you rescue, which means that as soon as you step into the mission, boom, you've acquired ally and the clues drop, thanks to the on-going bug (wonder if they'll ever fix that, it's been there since day one). In my testing I found this spoiler-riffic, which sort of destroyed the atmosphere of slowly building suspense I was going for.
To solve it, my first guess is to move the clue info into the ally's bio, I believe I can squeeze it in there. I don't mind eliminating a dropped clue anyways, I'm finding more and more than "clue clutter" detracts from my enjoyment of a story rather than adds to it, it's too much of a crutch.
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But then I wonder if anyone is going to read the info there in the bios? I know some of us hardcore players go though and carefully scrutinize any and all available texts, but I'm wondering you think enough people will check to make this work - or will I end up with lots of "what? I didn't see anything anywhere that told me who killed" type comments?
Maybe some of you wise MAers have a better work around suggestion? -
Having put a little thought into this topic ("writing one-shot tip-style missons for the AE"), I was reminded of something that's been nibbling away at the back of my mind from last time I ran a tip (something like two weeks ago I think):
The devs can take up all kinds of text space for story telling but AE keeps players' text space is limited.
Click on a glowie, beat down a destructable or whatever in a tip mission and you can get multiple paragraphs of info about it, while we only get 300 characters. Tips start with what, three screens? of info setting up the mission and the characters, player missions in AE get one screen of a thousand characters (the "mission start clue" does help though, but contributes to "clue overload"). And that's not even tossing in the newer mechanics the devs have, such as the ability to meet an NPC inside, click on him and get multiple speech windows (I would kill for this - I'd pay Paragon points too).
As I've been working a lot on AE stories lately (none of which have been publsihed yet, nope), I've been finding the limited text space more and more restrictive. I can't imagine I could fit much of a "real story" into a one-shot. I think the format is limited to being more like a "newspaper", which tend to fall into one of three catagories (with a little decorative tinsel tossed on for good measure): go beat up a boss, go click something, go escort someone out.
Then again, art being art, there are no rules that can't be broken well so I'm sure someone can come along and write some good ones. Just not me. Then again, if I give this more thought, maybe I'll get some ideas and end up eating my words.
I'd rather have more space for my words though. -
Quote:Just another reason not to believe "some fella" in-game.Originally Posted by kchammy
full o' crap