Dalghryn

Geesh, talk about yet another stubbed toe for MA. I guess we can all pretty much expect a poor showing this weekend, huh? I'd planned on trying to hit a couple arcs, but since I'll be playing with my wife and time is a rare commodity these days, looks like I'll be re-visiting old content myself.

Am I a traitor to the cause?

For the time being, both arcs are locked. While there are a couple of changes I have in mind to make, they'll remain on the back burner until after the First Annual Architect Awards are history.

Let's pretend there is no anachronism because Dro'Vidt's heavy suit is a prototype. The homage name is just a nice nod. They won't even be noticed... much... by people besides Venture... will they?

I just wish Avatea would answer PMs. I submitted two arcs, but I've since found something important I'd like to at least change in the MA, if not both the MA and the submission. I don't want to make any changes if that'll invalidate the submissions they have in hand, and I don't want to re-submit if that'll cause problems...

One thing they definitely need to learn to do some day is upgrade the amount of support and feedback they provide the forums when they post anouncements like this. They've yet to answer anyone's questions in this thread, and I'm not certain if their response to PMs is any better.

OK, climbing down off my frustration soapbox now.

Edit - I need to learn to be patient... PM answered.

OK, I gave "Mutually Assured Destruction" a try, however I finally gave up on the 2nd mission. Playing a Fire/Rad controller with imps and debuffs took me 30 minutes to beat the EB playing at plus 0 with no extras. Ran through every inspiration I had and used every trick I knew. When the EB revived, I threw up my hands. I may give it another run with my level 50 blaster. I didn't rate it in game.

In the mean time, let me give you my thoughts on what I did get done.

Typically, end of sentence punctuation goes inside of quotes. She has it that way in some cases, but not in others. She may want to give it another proof. In the mission #1 intro, there is one particular punctuation error - "...Echo 1, got it?. The period needs to go away.

In the mission #2 intro, there's a typo - "...A couple belond..." Should be "belong." In the mission send-off dialogue, there's another typo - "integated" should be "integrated." Punctuation-wise, "...villain too I've" should read, "villain, too, I've..."

I'm busy writing down notes when I notice the timer running. Huh!? I went back through all the intro and send-off and see nothing that specifically says it's timed. Ouch, since I was short on time as it is (then ran into the EB from hell).

The enter pop-up talks about the place not having seen any sentient beings except for insects and rodents. Unfortunately, insects and rodents aren't considered sentient. Which brings me to a point....

I tend to be overly wordy, and I tend to write to an audience of a 12th grade level or better. Most writing books will tell you to keep it below a 10th grade level, and many say 8th. You girlfriend has a great vocabulary, but - in my humble opinion - she's overwriting and needs to choose words that are more common. Trust me, been there, done that, so I know from personal experience how hard it is to force yourself to do.

She's fine in some places, but she might want to give it another once over.

Another minor point and I'll shut up. In the compass text for the second mission, it just says, "Protector II." Though we find out quickly enough what we have to do with "Protector II" (Ouch...), the compass text should be more specific.

Finally (for 1 1/2 missions), I tend to think PII is overpowered. You mentioned she likes to make hard missions, and I understand that considering the difficulty level mine address, but... wow... I was thinking he was too hard the first round. Going against him twice... Hm... she may want to at least re-think the resurrection. Just my thoughts.

I like where the arc's headed. In fact, one of my characters is a Revenant Hero clone. I may bring him back to this arc for some cool RP, as long as I bring help.

My arcs are in my signature, since I didn't actually finish, do with them what you like. In any case, based on what I saw, "Mutually Assured Destruction," less the godling in mission #2, was headed to a 4 star rating for me - up or down depending on how many more godlings my character had to get smacked around by and how much more overwriting there was. It's definitely got some great potential.

Part 1 finally got reviewed by Venture. I'll take 4 Stars given his rep.

Read the review here: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...&postcount=215

As for my thoughts... here you go:

1) I've wondered whether the Heavy Assault Suits were anachronistic, however, I haven't found anything concrete saying they were. Although they were not featured in the actual game play in 2004, I've found nothing specifically stating they were created by the Rikti after that time. Rather like the upgraded suits, I've just assumed NCSoft took advantage of superior graphics and designer skills in bringing more of the Rikti to life, as it were. If there *is* a reference, I'd really appreciate someone telling me where it is. As you can tell from the Rikti language and the "Original Vanguard" suits, as well as the text, I'm trying to eliminate anachronism where I find it.

Edit - From the "Reading Between the Lines" Department... I pinpointed why I thought they might be anachronistic, and why you're probably right, Venture. In the official history of the Rikti War it states that the Rikti sent their entire invasion force through the portals at once and that the portals went down without any more additional forces dispatched. The Rikti had underestimated the hero impact and had not taken heroes into serious account prior to the invasion - which resulted in the stalemate and the offensive against the heroes narrated in the Official History and detailed in "Consequences of War."

Heavy Assault suits were developed by the Rikti specifically as a counter to the meta-human problem (as detailed by various developers in interviews and in various Wikis). Unless they were developed and built on Earth after the invasion yet during the war (and, for the sake of CoW, in the first six months), the only time they *could* have been developed and built was in the interim between the 1st and 2nd invasion... ergo, they're anachronistic, dang it all. I'll plan on making corrections as soon as I get a reply from a PM to Avatea regarding how such changes might affect the status of the First Annual Architect Awards submissions.

2) Since it is an original Rikti war simulation, I've been of the opinion that it needs to be, well... warlike. That means all but overwhelming odds as discussed in the Paragon City History. Besides battles and patrols, which have their limits, ambushes are one of the only means of guaranteeing that atmosphere regardless of what setting the players use for their character - thus, I've programmed a lot of ambushes.

3) Commissioner G... Yes, his name a darling - one of the last I've left in the arcs. Since all of the character names hearken back to simpler times (Just try getting the name "Empathy" on any server, I dare you. ) and are in many ways stereotypical, I've left it. If I get an indicator that the devs have an issue with it for Dev's Choice or other reasons, I'll probably break. Otherwise... it's just one of those things.

4) Incomplete? Ok, it's Part 1 of a two part arc. However, I've been reading everything you've said about incomplete arcs. Not that I've built CoW to meet your specifications per se, but I was very cognisant of your specs during revisions and was very careful to make certain that both arcs could be seen as independent in their own right. I've even asked other reviewers to run the arcs with that in mind. If I removed the "Part 1" from the title, and never wrote "Part 2" perhaps you'd want to know more about the survivors, but how true is that of many of the better arcs that actually build Empathy. I'll simply smile and nod after this, because I really do appreciate your input, and I really have looked forward to it, but...

5) In regard to it being unclear in the browser info which war this was, the first sentence reads, "On May 23, 2002, the Rikti invaded." I guess I could have tried to squeeze in something about "The First Rikti War," but I thought it was fairly easy to figure out. I originally had a date reference in the briefing, but received several comments about it's having sounded contrived since, as far as the heroes of the day were concerned, it was the *only* Rikti war.

In any case, I'll definitely address the anachronistic heavies and I'll probably change Commissioner G's *given* name to something a little less obviously homagey. Thanks, Venture, for the review.

Thanks for the review, Venture. I can stop holding my breath now. I had commented in some short length in reply to your review, but then remembered your original post to this thread. I cut my comments from here and pasted them in a post in my thread if you wouldn't mind checking them out.

In any case, I'll look at this as a low-level lottery win. Not so good as the mega ball, but I'll still get a few free dinners out of the deal.

I ran Part 1 through another play with the wife in order to make certain it was set for submission in the First Annual Architect Awards. I ran Captain Superior (Level 50 SS/Inv Tanker), and she ran Azure Noir (Level 50 Rifle/Devices Blaster). We ran with both heroes at +1 difficulty as 4 heroes each.

Now *that's* a war!

I made several small corrections - new typoes, some clarifications, etc., but I think it's good to go.

We started Part 2. The changes to the first mission worked wonderfully. The new boss is quite doable, and the ambushes amp up the action well. The second mission makes the entire arc into a new animal, definitely a war scenario. I wish I'd done this sooner. Very fast paced action in a distinct wartime setting. No tents here.

Once were' done with this run-through, I think it'll be good to go, too. If anyone has the time to re-run either of them and give me your thoughts before I submit them, I'd be very appreciative.

Are we THERE yet?!

Bubba, you know, I've been coming back and forth to this thread and I think I've come to a conclusion... I may abstain from nominating. I've come to realize that I just really haven't had time to run nearly enough arcs to qualify as a fair judge. Beside QPQ and just a few others, I simply haven't had time. There are so many arcs I've seen reviewed that I want to play - that I feel should be played - that I just don't feel qualified.

I'm going to see what time permits before the 14th before I make a final decision. I think I owe it to everyone to try. Unfortunately, I only have so many free minutes in a day.

Thanks, Eva. This problem makes me wonder if it's an accidental bork or, like Carnifax suggested, a deliberate change that's not working correctly. In either case, it's really becoming annoying that creators that aren't deliberately exploiting or setting up farms are having so many of their options limited by the actions of those that do.

I've got a mission where I have a custom hero as an ally in a sewer map. I want him to stay put when I'm done defeating the enemies around him. Based on the tutorial etc., setting his actions to fighting defensive and doing nothing should cause him to stay where he is and fight only enemies that attack him. Unfortunately, he follows my player character anyway.

I originally had him set to "run to the nearest door" with an expectation that he'd leave, but of course that doesn't happen - he just runs around a corner and stays there, which makes no sense when the enemy's around.

I don't want him following the player character. He needs to stay alive to further the needs of the arc, and frankly, I don't want players getting irritated at an ally stealing their character's thunder. Anyone else have this problem? Is there a fix, or do I need to reset him to "run to the nearest door" and just live with it?

Thanks.

Bubba, do multiple nominations for the same arc make a difference? For example, Wrong Number actually nominated a couple of the arcs I was going to nominate. So, should I go ahead and sumbit the same nominees or either submit a different nominee or nothing for those categories?

BTW, superb idea, and yet another reason why I'm really growing quite fond of the folks that play in this partictular MA forum - even Venture.

You know, I bet that if it were possible to allow EU players to participate without breaking the national debt they'd do it. Maybe I'm just a Pollyanna, but it makes no sense not to unless it's cost prohibitive from a legal perspective to deal with the dozens (hundreds?) of different government regulations.

My question is, have they answered the question about whether or not you can submit the same arc for different categories? I read where it says you can just submit one arc per category, but I didn't see if they limited it to one submission per arc.

I'd be honored if you'd consider reviewing my "Consequences of War" arcs as noted in my signature. In the mean time, consider yourself added to my "to do" list for the weekend.

I'm at work at the moment, so I don't really have time to read the fine print. I'm assuming I'll be entering mine, but it is sad that it's only applicable for us U.S. residents.

I hope this is a sign that they're going to give MA a little more attention, particularly in the realm of Dev's Choice Awards. As noted elsewhere, there is a lot of incredible work out there, and it would be particularly nice if the developers put some work into acknowledging good arcs without forcing creators to jump through the hoops noted in the fine print of this contest.

Aggelakis' suggestion did the trick. I tried all the advanced signature stuff. Guess I'm just forum signature challenged.

Well, at least other people are listing arcs I'd list if I were allowed to...

OK, I give. I've tried both uploading a banner to my signature as well as just linking to the same banner on the web (from my SG website). I can't get either to work. The instructions say:

The maximum size of your custom image is 600 by 120 pixels or 146.5 KB (whichever is smaller).

My banner is smaller than that across the board. I've tried .bmp, .jpg. and .gif... so it's not the format. Any help?

What's the difference between that and every other clue or readable text? If the leader is running gonads to the wall, then that's an issue the rest of the team needs to take up with him or her. Optimally, it would all be saved in one big text display throughout the arc, like the regular game content does, but we wouldn't even have this thread if things were optimal, huh?