GadgetDon

I've got two arcs that have been wandering between 4 and 5 stars. When they're at 4 stars, I occasionally get the "someone has rated arc {name}" which means someone gave 0-2 stars but mostly get a bunch of 4 and 5 star ratings (based on tickets received). But when they hit 5 stars showing as the average, the number of "someone has rated arc {name}" suddenly skyrockets.

If someone plays my arc and honestly believes it's worth 0 stars, so be it, even without feedback. By the idea that people are making that decision so much more when it hits 4 stars seems unlikely. So, yeah, there is voting rating griefers. And nothings being done about it.

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Am I going crazy or did I really see in the FAQs that it is going to be an open beta?

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You did see that. But I'd be shocked if it wasn't preceded with a closed beta.

I just got the email.

I'm guessing someone jumped the gun and will have their knuckles soundly rapped tomorrow.

My advice...get a USB mouse to replace the mighty mouse. I love my Macs...but not Apple's mice.

I try to read it all, particularly when solo. And when writing, I try to fill it with good text. (Hint: On one of my missions, talk again to the contact after you got the mission but before you enter. Sometimes it's just utilitarian, but particularly for Dr. Aeon, I like having fun with that text.)

The problem with easter egg in the text when you're interacting with glowies is that only the person clicking it sees those. Which means soloers see it all, but in a team most people miss out.

It's also one reason I make sure that every mission has both a mission popup and a mission complete popup--a way to quickly summarize what this mission is about and what you just accomplished. It's one thing that every team member sees.

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Bosses with melee powersets getting the highest damage single target attack in the set on standard is plain ridiculous. The damage on the ranged attack powers seems too big as well. There are other problems with the changes as well. For instance, Dark Miasma gets Darkest Night, an AOE -15% to-hit debuff and -30% damage debuff on standard. Even minions get this.

This should definitely be on hard again like it used to be. Tar Patch isn't nearly as bad as Darkest Night. Honestly, the best thing to give them on standard in my opinion would be the heal, shadow fall, and maybe one of the control powers for higher ranks.

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Agreed! I've spent much of the day both hearing what people are saying about my missions, and running some other missions with my level 35 DB/Regen scrapper.

Listening...in Butterfly Effect, I have an AV (demoted to EB for most people) with Energy Blast/Energy Manipulation (chosen as a "weaker" energy melee). All day, I've been hearing far more "that guy is unkillable". And running my 35th level db/regen scrapper in...yeah, pretty much without a number of third tier inspirations. For my other arcs, I've had to add allies. So it's a fight between the NPC foe and the NPC ally with the player as sidekick. Not exactly heroic.

I've also been running other arcs. Now, I've run regen scrappers for a long, long time. In-game content, I can deal with most EBs and AVs demoted to EBs, with maybe a little help from inspirations. But post-patch, if there's an EB demoted to a Boss or an AV demoted to an EB, the best I could get was use a half dozen third tier inspirations and maybe succeed with only one death.

The damage put out is just WAY out of whack. And it's killing a lot of fun when using the AE as designed. The choices seem to be team, only do missions without any real resolution so no big foe to fight at the end, or do missions where there's an NPC to be the real hero or villain while I help out.

First, at least by the description, Mission Builder is NOT the same as Hall of Fame (unless the requirements for HoF are about to be eviscerated). It says 100 votes with an average of 4 stars.

Second, the boss changes apparently went in. So in Butterfly Effect, the AV now gets Total Focus. Meaning he can one-shot so many characters. I'm already getting complaints. In preparation to these changes, I added allies to the other two arcs in the series, but as it's a dev choice, it's locked.

The power changes went in intact. So in Butterfly Effect, my boss just got Total Focus, and I'm already receiving complaints that he's way overpowered.

There are unlockable maps, villain groups, and costume parts. You unlock them with tickets from the ticket vendor (above the datastream used to enter AE missions).

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Yeah, my bosses just got made far more deadlier. One in a dev choice arc, so I'm stuck with it

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I thought Dev Choices arcs were supposed to be frozen in time, and thus protected from any changes: otherwise what's the frickin' point to locking the arc?

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It's supposed to avoid arcs being invalidated if things change that would break the arc (removal of a map used, removal of some of the regular critters), though that hasn't been tested. But, I'd be surprised if it's protected from things like changes in powersets for custom critters (or things like Comm Officers now only giving minion rewards).

Yeah, my bosses just got made far more deadlier. One in a dev choice arc, so I'm stuck with it

The trail account on the US servers is usable because it's reactivation week. So that's why he can post here...but probably won't be able to do so next week.

The problem is things seem to be all-or-nothing.

For placing spawns...the ability to place all spawns is exploitable, but say, 1 boss spawn, 1 hostage spawn, 1 ally spawn, 1 glowie--and picking an existing spawn point to use, not clicking anywhere for the spawn point. This is doubly-necessary on outside maps. On the big round graveyard map, the mausoleum in the center is always the place for the big boss, in dev content. But it's the one place we can be sure it WON'T spawn for our arcs.

For stretching the levels...I'd say that any group that goes to 40, should be stretched to 50. Players only have 4 more powers, none are tier 9s.

If I had a slot, I'd love to do a new arc for it. But since I am slotless at the moment, for your consideration:

#24002 A Farming Tale
Global: @GadgetDon

Farmer Brown needs your help. Four men went out to the back forty, three came back with tales of weird monsters. He needs you to rescue the last man, and find out what's happening. (Not a farming arc, it's an arc about a farm.)

Almost all of my arcs (published and unpublished, with one exception) have an EB/AV. My mind goes towards epic fights, and you need an epic opponent for them. But I fully agree that the arc description should mention if there are EBs/AVs. And there are various levels of AVs, so if things are very tough, that's also worth mentioning. One of my unpublished arcs includes a Longbow Ballista, Hopkins, Kalinda, Hro'Dtohz, Black Scorpion, and a custom AV, so that got an extra warning.

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Was that just announcement that there was going to be an event as a whole, or did it describe the AVs/GMs being spawned everywhere and only lasting a few hours? Either way, people missed out on it and they should have this event again so everyone can partake in it.

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We were told that Chaos would happen, with opportunities for badges and merits. Which is definitely true.

Absolutely amazing fun event. Point of Balance hasn't had that much debt in a long, long time. I was hanging out in Virtue, and things got particularly crazy in PI near the end. On the arena's roof--12 GMs circling the edge and Recluse in the middle.

I will agree that the event would have been better during a Saturday. I suspect it's incredibly labor-intensive (not just flipping a switch) so a workday was easier to get all of their employees to do it.

Absolutely incredible!

I can solo every arc I have or plan to write with my level 50 Dual Blades/WP scrapper. But that's not for everyone. Most comments I get on my arcs doesn't talk about difficulty, but I get almost exactly the same numbers of "too tough, I can't solo this" as I get "too easy".

So my arc description always says if it has AVs/EBs. And I trust people to know if they can deal with that.

Make sure you have 3D sounds turned off.

The main disadvantage of the Mac Mini is the difficulty of changing RAM (due to the very hard to open case) which means you'll probably need to pay Apple for the RAM you want (which isn't always cheap). Still, they're nice machines.

There is a general problem with $name if you aren't "close" enough to the critter when it says that. Apparently it picks a PC relatively close to it to use for $name (and the other things like $archetype, $origin, etc.). But sometimes the trigger to speak text has a longer range than "find a PC close to you to use" distance.

I've had it happen for Boss Inactive, Patrol, Battles, and maybe Destructable Inactive. So I don't use $name for those.

If the game resolution doesn't match the screen resolution, and you're running full-size, the program can get confused. A quick workaround--hit command-return to move into windowed mode.

Absolutely agreed.

And I'd say that a favorites list should have the option of being public (not default, but an option) so if there's someone whose judgement I respect, I can see their favorites list.

Dollymistress, if you haven't done so yet, file a petition to have it looked at again. If you have done a petition, be sure to reply to each one, stating your case clearly, asking them to run it.

One of the things they're looking for, beyond actual farm missions, are missions that look as though they're farm missions in order to get runs. My original description of "I thought I'd try making a farming arc" (or something similar) definitely raised flags for them. Point out that you're willing to make changes and ask for suggestions.

Just wanted to say that the GMs HAVE run my arc, and it was restored. My fault in not be patient enough. So, if you do have an arc erroneously removed, go through the petition system, keep explaining the situation.

And they restored the arc, so it wasn't completely deleted, they must have just hidden it. A Farming Tale is back with its old ratings.