Dalghryn

The ones that popped into my head to start with have all already been nominated. Since this is a nomination thread (versus a voting thread), I'll just say I second several of these.

Thanks for opening this back up, Dr. Aeon.

Sometimes, it's all in the approach. Had Dr. A said something like...

"Dr. Aeon here! Remember me? Sorry for seeming to be AWOL, folks, but Pratetoria has had us all doing other things. We've been keeping up wither everyone's concerns and are looking in to all sorts of things that'll spice up life here in AE, and make a lot of people happy, but while we're doing that, I thought a contest would be a great way to get people back through the doors. So... I’m here today to issue my Third ARCHITECT CHALLENGE! It’s been a long time coming, so I hope you’re all ready for this one..."

I think another contest is hunky dory. I wish I had time to participate. The fact that it's just tossed out there after months of nothing (with not a comment about anything else people have been dicussing in all those other threads someone suggested we should start), tends to be irritating, however. It's presentation makes it look as if they're just trotting out another shiny while ignoring everything else.

While I usually try to be a very positive person, I'm going to have to echo the words typed by Lazarus, Wrong Number, Eva Destruction and others.

Several players have produced very high quality arcs that they work hard to continue improving and maintaining when patches come out (and that they constantly hope might benefit from some of the new and shiny additions that's been made available for dev content to make them even better). The arcs are well-played (at least "well-played" as may be given the current less-than-active AE) and well-rated, and are on par - if not better than - a lot of dev created content, yet those arcs seem to have been placed on ignore.

Many of these authors may not have slots and/or time right now. I'm not necessarilly saying contests should be taken off the table. Heaven knows, any attention the AE system can get right now is attention it needs. But there's no reason that already accomplished arcs shouldn't be just as carefully considered for awards and recognition as arcs created solely for new contests.

In any case, thanks for "listening."

You beat me to the punch on your post. And you misunderstand where I'm coming from. I agree wholeheartedly that quality arcs with 100 legitimate plays with a 5 star rating are deserving of HoF or some other reward as the AE currently stands. I simply think that, because of the TOTAL lack of dev involvement right now, scamming the system to get 100 runs is doable and will be done just so people can say they did it... for the badge or the bragging rights or something.

Ideally it would be 100 runs at 5 stars and the devs would devote at least enough time to make sure abuses are culled. It wouldn't be hard for them to do. Unfortunately, they've demonstrated that their attention to *anything* is feast or famine. Look at Dr. Aeon's original slavish devotion to AE as compared to his current conspicuous abscence. You have to plan for the worst case scenario... that absence. That "miniscule .0001472% would likely be higher if farms hadn't been culled. I've personally reported several of them that had 100 runs with high ratings simply because of farming word of mouth. The key was they were culled... eventually. Now - would you bet any of your hard earned money that a dev would even notice?

I've been following your other thread and pretty much agree with you across the board. As one of the authors in question (with two arcs that meet the criteria), I've given up on Hall of Fame and, given recent lack of developer activity in the AE, Dev's Choice. My first arc, with over 250 plays, gets *maybe* ten runs a month. The second arc, with just over 110, gets less than five - if that. In short, there's no incentive to write a third arc save for the "joy" of writing.

That said, I'm going to play Devil's Advocate for a moment. A farm arc that was written on a particularly good day could feasibly meet your criteria and get HoF before a dev does anything about it - IF a dev does anything about it. Heck, going at it with the knowledge that all it takes is 100 5 star runs, a person can write a mediocre to bad arc and make the grade using some well-timed advertising among friends and SG mates.

In short, as much as I'd LOVE your criteria and, honestly, think it *should* be considered. 100 runs would also require significantly more developer interaction with the AE system in order to insure quality than I believe they're willing to give. Realistically, 200 or 250 runs might be a better compromise.

In any case, thank you VERY MUCH for your hard work in promoting this issue.

If a person thinks the game is "lame" because they already "beat it," they probably aren't looking at it from a standpoint of "beauty" anyway. It's just another conquest, like their console games. Neither beauty, nor a broad understanding of good game play factor into it.

I asked this under another thread, but no one's answered, so I figured I'd start a thread with a topic specific to the question. Has anybody looked into adding unconscious (dead) bodies to a mission, like they've done with a lot of the newer content? Rather than body bags, having real unconscious (dead) rikti, Vanguard, and heroes in my arcs would be a lot more satisfying.

I haven't read anything in patch notes that suggests there's an animation or command that makes supine bodies stay down, and I haven't found anything that I can figure out that let's me do it, so I figured I'd ask the experts.

If not... Devs, please?

Lazarus (or anyone else), have you heard if the new AE content will include the ability to have unconscious (or dead) bodies the way they've started doing in newer game content? I was hoping they'd add that, either as a feature or as an animation, this time around, but if they have, I haven't figured it out.

You know, the world would be a much simpler place without exploiters, huh? I've been a lurker on this thread because there are quite a few MA gurus far more knowledgable than I making comments that are said better than what I'd say. Given the number of repeat runs my arcs are getting lately - which don't show as stats anywhere - I had to at least make my presence known here. I don't have a second account, and if it is friends playing my arcs, it's because they like the arcs (not because they're helping to pad it). There has to be some combination of stats that could contribute to a more realistic HoF goal. Besides PW's wonderful arc, I'm not certain any of the rest of us will ever see one (or *another* one in some cases) again.

Like that's going to happen... I'm not sure what it is about comments, but people very rarely leave them. In any case, as is being discussed in another thread, the MA could certainly use some revision when it comes to rewards.

I'm sure there's an easy answer to this, like repeat plays, but just to make sure...

I've had a dozen plays (give or take) on my two arcs in the last couple of weeks that have awarded me tickets, however the number of plays that show in the MA listing hasn't changed from 248/108? Is it same players playing again with higher ratings, same players rating that didn't before, a glitch, or something even more obvious that I'm missing in my senility?

Help me gurus of the MA, you're my only hope.

Just to catch things up... I still tweak here and there. Some dialogue changes, minor corrections to gameplay issues, and so on. The most recent change was to Consequences, where I switchd the Boss battles to "Boss only." I originally did it at the same time as I did Casualties, but thanks to the vagaries of the MA, they didn't stick. A couple of frustrated tells from players alerted me to the problem (and the moronic drones that ran off and hid on them).

Oh, and I owe a thanks to Glazius for the re-review back in April. I have no idea how I missed it, but I just now read it. Thanks for the review, Glazius. It was much less painful than your last one. I'll take a look at some of the dialogue and see if I can clarify it a bit. As for the bunker eliminating some of the objectives, such is the nature of war, my friend. I realize that it can cause some frustration for folks bent on experience and tickets, but it works far better for the story than any other alternative.

Ok, while I would typically join in on the ranting... I don't have time (late to work as it is), so I'll just ask...

Just to make sure I'm right, if I have an AV in a mission, say a renamed Hro'Drotz, for example, as long as I haven't changed his scaling at all, he'll still spawn exactly as he has been before, correct? Or will he be different, too, and should I test him?

Thanks, everyone. Hopefully they'll give us that option soon. I guess the whole "Director's Cut" thing will be an ongoing process. What am I saying? The whole *arc* thing's an ongoing process.

I notice in the new material that they have...


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...actual dead bodies laying around instead of body bags in some of the missions. Is this something we can do now, or is it something else reserved for just the devs (like the other really neat addition to the new missions I won't spoil)?

If it can be done now, i.e., if we can set NPCs to start laying down and stay laying down even after they're contacted (searched, whatever), how do you do it?

I think the answer's still, "No, we can't," but I figured I'd ask.

If you're looking for Paragon City patriotic, you can't get more patriotic than being neck deep in the original Rikti War. No Nazi's, Japs or Redcoats (using the vernacular, no offense to any group intended ), but Rikti are just as bad in this universe.

For a full tilt war story, "Consequences of War" and the sequel, "Casualties of War," are in my signature.

Given the complexity and information-heaviness of the posts in this thread, it's going to take me awhile to get through it. I'm stopping for a second to point out something that I've seen several times, by way of a quote from Eva Destruction (who's opinion I'm almost always in lock step with):

"I refuse to fight Extreme anything..."

THIS is something I'd like to see changed. The auto-labeler they use is horribly inaccurate. Both my arcs have auto-generated Extreme labels peppered through the orange section like candy, but the truth is, only the scalable EB and AV (1 in each arc) can be extreme, and that's dependent on the player's difficulty settings.

If I'm not mistaken, Eva, you've run both of my arcs -- maybe not recently -- but I thought you had. If so, it was just by the grace of some supreme being, because anyone that refuses to run Extreme arcs wouldn't touch it.

In short, fine tune the auto-rater or come up with another system.

"The Casualties of War" Volume 10, "Director's Cut," has been published!

Mission #3 has been completely replaced. Instead of being the first of two maps involving the hospital rescue, it deals with a plan to get the player character past the Rikti into the hospital and the rest of the SOLOS Collective past the Rikti to the battle zone outside the hospital. Because of new MA bugs, it originally included a protect object, but I had to change that because the waves wouldn't spawn. Once that's fixed, I'll re-replace it.

Three of the missions have a lot of expanded, individualized battle and patrol dialogue that enhances the feel of war and makes for interesting fly-overs for the outdoors missions.

Other dialogue was tweaked and minor changes were made to enhance the feel of war.

If you run it, please let me know what you think.
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Fixed. Thanks for the catch.

"The Consequences of War" Volume 10, "Director's Cut," has been published!

I changed a couple of maps, adjusted the character interaction and "feel of war" in the first mission and used the extra memory to add patrols, flesh out individual battles, add some rookies to Mission #4, and individualize dead bodies. I'll probably continue tweaking it a bit as I work on "Casualties..."

If you run it, please let me know what you think.

Something else to keep in mind is the fact that most everyone that has created arcs with over 100 plays with a five star average have advertised the heck out of those arcs. Had the authors not created threads devoting their time to critiquing other arcs or spend innumerable hours hawking their arcs to these people and actively critiquing these people's arcs, most of the over-100-play arcs would likely be wallowing in limbo, too.

While HoF should not come without effort on the author's part, that effort should be in crafting a strong story, utilizing the tools made available through the MA, and working to fine tune the arc into the best work possible. There is a fine line between seeking feedback in order to make an arc better and pimping yourself out just to get plays. The current system asks good authors to don fur coats and twenty pounds of bling.

It looks as if Eva, Artic Princess and heraclea have summed up my thoughts on this as well as if I tried to state them. So... well... I guess that's all I got to say about that.



For the moment.

It was the CoV Set sewer map. Several of the CoV sewer maps are borked. I finally threw up my hands and went over to a similar CoH Set sewer map and it worked fine.

That helped me fix it, Wrong Number. It ended up being a borked CoV Sewer map. After trying several other CoV sewer maps with the same results, I simply swapped over to the identical CoH Sewer map and it published just fine. It amazes me how many little things a new issue can bork.

Now I can hopefully find time to make the new changes that I'd hoped to make from the start.