GadgetDon

It's possible that it's merely completely hidden, and so resides somewhere on the server. But when I look at my list of published arcs, it's not there.

And I have been escalated through CS. I petitioned, was passed on to someone higher, was asked to send a copy of the arc, sent my local copy, was told no attachment (there was, I checked the message in my sent mailbox), sent it again, and was told:

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Please keep in mind that any Architect mission that is advertised as a farm mission will be removed. This is also the case if any of the dialog inside the mission indicates that it is intended to be a farm mission.

Our patch note about this issue is as follows: NCsoft reserves the right to ban any missions that contain any exploits that provide unintended statistical advantages. Players and/or "authors" that advertise exploitable missions through our forums, in-game chat system or through the Mission Architect system may be banned from the Mission Architect System or may have their game account closed.

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Update Apparently my claim that nobody actually runs them was completely unfounded. It was run, and I got a notice that it had been restored and is live again! Thanks, GMs, I shoulda been more patient!

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For those wondering how the MA complaint system works, there was a blog post a few days back from Hero 1 that goes into details on how the system works. It made slashdot, which is how I found out about it. Let me go dig through slashdot to find the link....

Ok. Here we go.

As a short synopses, arcs are pulled automatically after they receive X complaints, with X increasing as the arc gets more and more non-complaint ratings. They can be republished once when pulled, but if pulled a second time they must be appealed to CS, and evaluated by a live person. And it's only at this third stage that CoH CS gets involved. The first two pullings are done totally automatically done by the system.

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I attempted to re-publish a banned arc and it was just deleted. Completely gone. Which sucks because i didn't have a local copy of it.

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Happened to me too--I modified the description to make it clear it wasn't a farming mission. And while I have a local copy, it's not completely up to date.

I'm not a big fan of the Mighty Mouse, but you can use any USB Mouse or trackball with the Mac.

The Mac OS also supports right-clicks to bring up contextual menus.

There's a button that shows up on your view of your published arc when it's been reported, "Complaints".

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GadgetDon said: "The name was chosen to make fun of the panic about "I14 will be used for farming" during test, but it's just a silly arc that takes place on a farm. It even got hit with Dev Choice."

So, I'm trying to figure out how an arc that violates the rules can become a Dev's Choice arc, and how a Dev's Choice arc can be banned. Anyone?

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Sorry. It got dev choiced on the test server, not on live. I asked it not be considered for carrying over to live...it's a fun silly arc, not the standards I think a Dev Choice arc should have.

So I posted it on live, and it got banned from live.

Well, there was a complaint on my arc that it said it was banned because Farming Missions give an artificial advantage.

Except "A Farming Tale" doesn't give any artificial advantage. The name was chosen to make fun of the panic about "I14 will be used for farming" during test, but it's just a silly arc that takes place on a farm. It even got hit with Dev Choice.

Well, it got blocked on Friday, I sent a petition asking for it to be looked at again and editing the description to make it clear it wasn't a farm mission. After maintenance I logged in, and it was gone.

Very annoying. Apparently the word "farm" was enough to get it killed.

The problem is, unless you get hall of fame (which griefers seem to be actively blocking) or Dev Choice, you get to have three arcs up. So once you've debugged those three arcs...where does the more testing come in?

How many merits? The devs have datamined how long it takes people to run the regular arcs and based the merits off of that, they don't have that information on the dev choice arcs.

Any guess when the "developer's Choice: For Your Consideration" forum will open up?

While parody is a defense against a copyright claim (and so CoH probably wouldn't be sued and would definitely win), Paragon Studios has set some rules for the content in the AE, including "no parody". I wouldn't worry about getting banned...but my guess is that once it gets reviewed, it'll be pulled.

Now clearly, there's parody and there's parody. Many of the newspaper missions have references to other material, like "Peter Kent", friend of Unbelieveable Man, and Unbelievable Man's girlfriend (whose name escapes me). Would those past muster as AE creations? Maybe, but it's clearly a parody of a type rather than a specific character.

There's a term I've heard used about this sort of thing, "filing off the serial numbers". Using name plus appearance plus signature dialog means you are aping the character. But if it's a different name, different appearance, but it just happens to have some catchphrases...that's a reference.

The "Virtual Victor" series of badges have ridiculously high numbers. Remember, this is "Test mode", where we're supposed to be preparing our arcs for publication. It has the steepest growth rate of all the AE badges (powers of 10, except for the 5th badge where it's "only" a multiplier of 5). Given the limit of 3 arcs plus perhaps a couple extra for Hall of Fame or Dev Choice, the idea that you'd test that much within the lifetime of the game is ridiculous.

If those numbers were for "Mission Victors" in published AE arcs, I'd still say the progression was too steep, but at least the idea of a badge to keep playing more and more arcs has some merit. But the numbers for defeats in test mode is screaming "for farmers only"

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I'm not opposed to a dev's choice system and badge, though the system described by Moderator08 of a thread for recommendation and such needs to go into place soon. (Of course that's easier to say now that I have an arc that got dev's choice.)

However, the recognized and "have your arcs run" and hall of fame problems are exacerbated by the problems with the browser, and the problem is more there. I got marked dev's choice late, and so have very clearly seen what happened before and after I got marked. Before, I did a lot of networking to get people running the arc and giving some feedback...and finally managed to earn Writer (including a number of runs by myself) and the first recognized badge. Once I got marked as dev choice, the ratings skyrocketed, and in a few hours I got Bard, and less than a day later I got the second, third, and fourth recognized badge (and possibly the fifth, except it's bugged). Clearly recognition should have some reward, but the impact is just too strong.

Hall of Fame should have the same effect...except both the numbers are way too high for "normal" networking and publicity, and once it hits, it's too easily griefed away (not only griefing the author of the arc, but anyone who would like to get badges for running HoF arcs).

Clearly these aren't purely badge issues...but they greatly affect badges.

You can't for Ally, but you can for escort. As far as I know, these are the fail conditions:

1. Timed mission runs out
2. Boss escapes
3. Escort dies
4. Object you are defending is destroyed (I believe--haven't seen that yet)

For 2, 3, or 4, only fails if it's a required mission objective

Shoot, I hate seeing the Rikti Priests go. They stand out so nicely as "this is a special guy in this mission" without being overpowering.

Yeah, the only "AV" Dr. Aeon is the one from the STF. And the problem isn't the clone backup, but his uber forcefield bubble. Your best bet is to recreate him...but beware, he can become very deadly.

Destructable objects SHOULD work in single mode. But there's a bug that sometimes they don't. So I've been putting at least one mob "defending" it, and often with either dialog or a special animation. I do hope it gets fixed before long.

Except the storyline situation is already all blown to hell.

First, you can get these badges in super-secret missions no one will ever know about because it's highly classified (and apparently, while in the middle of this mission in another dimension and another time frame, someone is monitoring your and pops up and hands you a badge then slips away.

Second, influence or infamy is supposed to reflect how the public sees your accomplishments. For heroes, people think so highly of you, that if you go to a store and say "Citizen, I need to requisition this item" they say "Sure, whatever I can do to help, Superguy!" For villains, people are so afraid of you, they pay you off to avoid being the next target of your wrath.

And yet we're earning influence/infamy while doing these virtual reality missions.

So I'll second that request. No kill badges, fine, I understand the reason. But the other badges you get from earning influence, burning off debt, taking damage, giving it, healing, held...I think those should be earnable. Why?

The biggest issue the game has always had is "end game content". The epic badges have sort of been that...but mostly they're earned in boring ways. And one of the the standards CoH used to have when talking about "exploits" or "farming" is, "if you're doing something not-fun just for a reward, it's not what we want."

Yes, custom missions could be created for the farming...but the players know what "real" missions to use for the farming as well, so at most, it would be slightly more efficient farming. For those of us who don't like farming, this is a chance to do something fun while earning those badges.

I may be the target of your wrath, MrCaptainMan, and I'm sorry. But the thing is, there are only two Portal Corp maps, they're both the same size, and in fact they're both the same map except for which end you start at.

The story makes so much SENSE to be taking place at Portal Corp, a regular tech map wouldn't quite match. I'd love to have a small one, just like I'd love to have smaller outdoors maps

Arc Name: A Farming Tale
Arc ID: #24002
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: GadgetDon
Difficulty Level: Very soloable. No AVs or EBs
Synopsis: Farmer Brown wants your help to deal with some unusual problems on his farm
Estimated Time to Play: Variable. 3 missions, non particularly large

This replaces Architect Files: Stolen!...I figured people might be searching for farm and I'd take advantage of it, but it's just for fun. Two movie references, and lots of insanity.

Thanks, Positron!

I've got three arcs up at present.

Arc Name: The Butterfly Effect
Arc ID: 2965
Faction: Neutral
Creator Global/Forum Name: GadgetDon
Difficulty Level: Moderate (does include one AV/EB at the end)
Synopsis: Dr. Aeon let's you know the real purpose of the Architect Entertainment system--one grand experiment to prove the past cannot be changed
Estimated Time to Play: Variable. It's highly stealthable if desired, but clearing all maps could take some time

Arc Name: Return of the Lizard People
Arc ID: #2974
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: GadgetDon
Difficulty Level: Middling High. One fairly tough AV/EB
Synopsis: That experiment Dr. Aeon was working on? He needs some more help dealing with the results.
Estimated Time to Play: Again, variable, but 5 missions, some on reasonably sized maps

(Architect Files: Stolen! has been unpublished and replaced)

I've been critical of many of the past official videos, and tried to pour some water on the idea that "wow, this would be a great commercial, you should show it somewhere."

Well, none of that today. This video is great, AND it's a great commercial. It clearly and in a compelling way explains what's so great about Architect, and you don't already have to know the game to understand the high points.

Kudos all around. Very well done, and this time, add me to the people saying "You gotta get this where people will see it"

In my Villainous arc (Chance of a Lifetime, warning, starts with a Ballista and lots of AVs), you are browbeating the contact into helping you. Yes, I define the plot (after getting a Rikti power supply of incredible strength, you decide to build a killer robot with it). If you succeed at the end, you get your killer robot (which would really mess up the status quo if it was awarded in the game).

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But be warned: every custom critter takes about 6.5% of your *total* mission file space. You're not going to be able to get more than about 14 custom critters into a single mission arc - 15 if they all stand in a phonebooth and don't speak.

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Please clarify; 14 per mission? or 14 per arc (14x5=70 total)?

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14 per arc, 14 total. It has to do with how many character definitions can fit into your 100K arc file limit.

Sure.

But if you have arcs currently on live...I'm gonna have to cry "Hax"

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[ QUOTE ][*] Failing a mission that is the final (or only) mission of a story arc, task force, strike force or trial may result in reduced rewards. Failing tasks that have 2 or less missions will award 0 merits. Failing tasks that have 3-4 missions will award 50% merits. Failing a task that has 5 or more missions will result in normal merits.[/LIST]
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Theres one high level Hero side arc where they give you 5 minutes to disarm or destroy 3 or 4 items. Is that gonna lower the number of merits in in arc for giving a virtually impossible task?

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The penalty is only if the last mission is failed, and the race against time mission is far from the last. Also, even if it was, it falls into the "5 or more missions" category that means no penalty.