Eva Destruction

Yeah, this is why the LRSF has never been looked at. A few powergamers who always go for the "uber" powersets and play with people who do likewise and therefore have no trouble finding a stone brute, a rad, a kin, a therm, and a couple of VEATS rush through the thing and go into threads like this with nothing to contribute besides "learn to play."

And yes, I've beaten the LRSF with no cheating (temp powers, stacking vengeance) or mind doms. It was a static team, that had a stone brute, a rad, a therm, a kin, and two VEATs. The STF can be done with PuGs. The LRSF may not be broken, but it's BAD DESIGN.

The other 87 are, ultimately, fair. Except the "play x Hall of Fame" line, as the system currently stands, since other people's actions can keep you from getting them. Some of them are still pretty dumb, namely the higher-end virtual ones.

There is a world of difference between "fairness" and "equality." Everyone has the same opportunities to get purples as I do. This is fair. My opportunities to get an expensive commodity are not limited by how many friends I have, whether I like the same stuff as the Devs, or anything beyond my ability to earn inf. If I have them and you don't, I can tell you exactly how to get them. If you put in the effort I did, you will have them. Fair. The same goes for the "grindy" badges. Obnoxious, poorly thought out, but ultimately fair.

My chances at Dev's Choice and Hall of Fame are entirely dependent on how many friends I have, whether I like the same stuff as the Devs, and luck. In other words, a lot of factors besides my ability to create a good arc. If my arc is as good as yours but a Dev just happens to play yours instead of mine, you get Dev's Choice and I don't. Not fair.

I believe Positron has said that you can't accidentally 0-star an arc. If you don't rate, it's just no rating. I have had someone run through one of my arcs, fail (due to a bug that I have since fixed), and not rate it, and my total number of ratings didn't change.

0 and 1 star ratings do happen. I refuse to believe, that if you have an arc that is at least remotely coherent and playable, that a bunch of people would decide it deserves 2 or fewer stars, when you're sitting at 5. Really, most people's standards aren't that high.

Note to self: Run ICF_Zombra's arc with Fire/Storm corr on difficulty level 4, playing like an idiot and not caring if I faceplant, ie my usual playstyle.

If I die a lot because I'm careless, do I rate you down for it? No. Will other people see my slew of deaths and decide your arc is difficult before even trying it? Probably. The same applies to people ignoring the "challenging" or "designed for teams" warnings in the arc description, or people running high-level arcs with lower-level characters.

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3) Show statistics that show the number of people who started the mission vs those who completed it.

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I like this minus one detail: show death count instead of start count. The reason is that people can still easily go in and quit as a form of griefing to lower the start/end ratios. Just show how many ended it as a mean of displaying true popularity (some one that didnt liked it may not finish it nor recomend it) and a kill ratio would just help provide a difficulty idea (not if the arc is good or not).

Actually, an arc with high death ratios and high complete count may point at an amazing story that no one would stop playing just because they kept dying.

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Honestly, who cares how many times people die? Showing a death count would first off, skew the ratings against people whose friends and SG-mates aren't powergamers. Let's face it, often our friends are the first ones we get to play our arcs. Also, an arc with few plays that an incompetent PuG just happens to stumble across and finish, would suddenly rack up a zillion deaths, giving the impression that it's difficult, even if it isn't. And then I would feel bad, if I run your arc on a squishy with the difficulty cranked up and die a lot.

So really, showing the number of deaths is meaningless.

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i would have thought its more that set bonuses matter to some degree in RV, but the pve game is so easy that they really are not necessary, but thats probably crazy talk.

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Necessary? Maybe not. Fun to have? Heck yeah.

And considering some of the whining on the market forums, some people apparently do think they absolutely NEED a purpled-out Warshade.

You can only choose from the destructible objects available. You'd have to check the info on the objects to see if any of them grant +per. If they don't, the best you can do is set the guards to include mobs with +per, such as Rikti drones, snipers, or custom mobs with /SR.

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Oh. and furthermore, theres a reason why 50's in RV have more set bonuses than those in PI.

Most people in PI powerlevelled their way to 50.

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So did most people in RV. They're just better at it.

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Unless there's a graveyard under Atlas Plaza, there shouldn't be any Shivans just because a meteor landed.


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Unless it landed on anyone

Anyhow, I still think the Coming Storm is a big con job. I think each of the Menders think the Storm they are preventing is something different.

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Or....maybe it's ALL OF THEM!!!

Shiva, Rularuu, The 5th, Nemesis, whoever's using Kheldians as rocket fuel, all make their bid for world domination/world destruction either all at once or one right after another (while everyone is still recovering from the last crisis) until the universe implodes in a great big ball of DOOOOOMMMM!!!!

The Shadow Shard is still the awesomest-looking zone, ever, IMO. They really need to give you a reason to go there other than TFs that nobody wants to do, and which are so long they encourage speeding through rather than pausing to read up on the lore. It's sad, so much potential, totally abandoned because "nobody wants to go there."

Besides, it's got an evil mad god that eats dimensions. How much more epic can you get?

We have neutral content because even without the foreknowledge of Going Rogue there are moral shades of gray that some architects want to explore. Such as mercenary arcs, anti-hero arcs, comedy arcs, genres such as investigation, mystery, and horror, and arcs that heroes would do because it's the right thing but also offer an incentive for villains.

Yep, my guess is it has something to do with Rularuu as well. Aside from the clues others have mentioned, there are some cryptic references in the items you need to grab for the Midnight Club history badge. Specifically:

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Hopefully, when you read this, my name is not forgotten. I don't know why that's so important to me. I guess after all I've seen, a part of me is still human. I wonder if the same can be said for my counterpart, Rularuu.

As I used the blade, I shaved off a piece of myself. I am not the same man anymore. I still work among you - looking for answers. But I've also begun searching in the dreamspace for a way to protect you, and the rest of the world, from a fate that grows closer with each passing day. Something is coming and I must find out what it is before it's too late.

I have never been afraid to ask for help. If you remember anything about me, please remember that. But this...this is something I must do on my own. I'm going to try and save the world... again. But by all means, don't let that stop you from trying to save it first.

-The Dream Doctor


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As for who the letter writer is, I'm pretty sure it's not Rularuu. He's more interested in causing apocalypses than preventing them. It could be Faathim though, or the Dream Doctor himself.

1) I would search by the SFMA tag, and pick one that has a lot of ratings and four stars. That way you get an arc that quite a few people have already checked out and deemed good, and you don't have to gamble your team on an unknown quantity.

2) It will spawn to your level. It will only auto-sk people to the minimum level of the mission, which is given in the description. If you're 39 and choose an arc where all the missions are 1-54, no one will be SKd. If the minimum level is 40, everyone will be SKd up (even you, if you're set to difficulty setting 1 or 2). Again, many SFMA authors are careful to set a consistent level range for their entire arc.

Because people wanted to get it over with so they could go back to grinding 2 billion inf?

Energy melee, electric melee, martial arts, superstrength, warmace,...all popular melee sets for MA critters, all with a secondary effect that mezzes, usually even when set to standard. And do tons of damage to boot. And if you don't have acrobatics, there are even more problem sets.

Blast sets don't get mez attacks on standard for minions, if ever. Controller sets have to be specifically chosen by the designer, if they want a "mezzer" mob. Most designers tend to avoid them, or only use one critter with a controller set. Melee mobs are put in for melee damage, which is high enough on its own, but then add mezzing, and a smart squishy stays the heck back.

Phipps is not the only evil contact. Peter Themari is way eviller than Phipps. Westin Phipps blinds little girls. Peter Themari turns them evil, uses them, and then hands them over to the DE.

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Why yes, as a matter of fact, I am asking for an AE arc. I don't want to mess around with canon too much if I can avoid it.

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I can't blame you in the slightest for that. Not only is the "link activated haphazardly/at will" explanation the easiest for a writer to work with (in that any telepathic communication you want to have captured can be captured, and any that you don't want captured isn't), it seems to be the one the devs use. Come to think of it, those two statements are probably linked, what with some of the devs being writers and all.

That's the explanation that lets Kalinda know enough (but not too much), lets Seer Marino weave her webs, and lets the Rogue Fortunatas defect without being stopped 100% of the time.

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Oh, the arc has a reason for getting around the link. I just want to know if I'd be justified in actually using it without getting into "well, isn't that convenient" territory. Looks like I can't.

Yes, if you're a squishy. They don't necessarily 3-shot you. Besides, being taunted to a melee mob would prevent you from dealing with the far more dangerous mezzing or debuffing mob. It would also force you to waste your own mez attacks that you were saving for that mezzing or debuffing mob, as your target suddenly switches on you. It would also affect melee characters, who would also have to deal with target-switching.

Although I do agree the ranged attacks are a band-aid solution.

I'm all in favor of adding proper NPC conversations. You can ignore it and just hit them if you want. My big problem with cut scenes is that you are stuck in them, whether you care or not. If there was a way to skip it, I'd be all in favor of adding them.

Because custom critters don't have taunt. If they did it would be extremely annoying. For one thing, it would force ranged characters into range of their often mezzing melee attacks.

Why yes, as a matter of fact, I am asking for an AE arc. I don't want to mess around with canon too much if I can avoid it.

Yep, I checked, they're both Phipps, and you're right Memphis_Bill, it was an Arachnos one that got "volunteered." He didn't have someone dissected, he was going to have Hugo vivisected, in front of his girlfriend.

Edit: Still not much information there about how the Fortunatas' powers work, except that they catch glimpses of the future.

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From an in-game marketing standpoint, I expect that having cross-faction / alignment / whatever arcs would be an even bigger draw. "By day, Stupendous Person is a tireless force for good. But his amazing strength and unmistakable jawline make it hard for him to truly relax with normal people. What does he do to really unwind after a hard day of saving the world? The brighter the light, the starker the shadows... come to Architect Entertainment, and you'll not just *see* it, you'll *experience* it! (Mention this ad and code V6K08 to get 10% off a 3-arc package and a free pamphlet to help you find arcs by your favorite superstars, or save even more with our All Day Super Saver Pass!)"

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This should be in NPC text.

You can do that with custom mobs though. Having the generic heroes and villains available would allow for more flexibility in mission creation, so we should have them.

You mean until everyone and their brother starts forcing you to sit through them, right?

I don't like them in PvE content either. They're an overused gimmick. The 5-minute Dr. Aeon cutscene in the STF should have a nuke taken to it, also the one in Dark Watcher's arc where Nemsis shows up to interrupt your perfectly good kicking of Hro'dotz's butt with his lame villain speech, and yeah, we get it by now, we know that you're NICTUS!!!11!! and that everybody on the team has a battlecry.