Greyhawke

[ QUOTE ]
I threw in another version after you posted that addresses that, TwoF. I think the inclusion of a "+" prefix (or any other uncommon grammatical character, like ~ or &lt is a fair compromise between querying and character conservation.

[/ QUOTE ]

Will the search function pick up the "+" ?

I understand your plight here. I had to cut down my descriptions to get the tags I wanted on there as well. But, I think we really need to make sure whatever tag we use is something that is most likely put there intentionally.

I do want the devs to incorporate something into the system at some point. However, this not only serves the players for now, but also gives the devs some ideas for the tags we want to see and how we will use them if/when they do incorporate the system.

Added Team Focused, I agree that the TF automatically implies what you want it to.

[ QUOTE ]


How should we be adding multiple tags, by the way? [TAG1][TAG2], or [TAG1/TAG2]?

[/ QUOTE ]

You could do either, I think. The search will pick up the one the player is looking for. My preference would be [TAG1/TAG2] as its one less precious character

[ QUOTE ]
QR - Go ahead and suggest a suitable tag for other types of arcs, that's a good idea.

Could I suggest that you post it in its own thread?

[/ QUOTE ]

I put up a thread here to discuss what types of tags we might want to see as players.

[ QUOTE ]
For the same reason they put "This is not a farm" in their description. They're hoping to slip it past the radar.

[/ QUOTE ]

Some will do this. But most authors of farm missions still want people to play their arcs, and rate them at least a 3 to get them tickets. If they hide them too well, they won't get played by their target audience, and they will not get any benefit from others playing them. Of course some just want the mission published so they can play it with their friends, but they don't need to co-op other groups tags for that, they know their arc ID.

Eco has a thread here describing his idea of using [SFMA] as shorthand to let a player know that the arc they want to run in a Story Focused Mission Arc. It makes searching much easier, because you can enter SFMA in the search box and only see the arcs that authors have labeled with this tag.

With tens of thousands of arcs currently published (and it keeps growing) I think we should try to come up with a list of other tags we might want to use. Basically, players helping each other find the arcs they are most interested in. I am already using [LBMA] to designate my LowBie friendly mission arcs. Eco mentioned the possibility of using [PCMA] for Pro Challenge Mission Arcs.

Anyway, I'm going to use this thread to post some tags that seem to be useful to others. Feel free to discuss what elements you think merit their own tags. I would like to use tags of four letters, to stay consistent, and the MA on the end for Mission Arc also lends it a consistent theme. I'll update this post as we develop new tags, at least as long as the forums allow me to.

Here's what I have so far:

Mission Archetype Tags:
<ul type="square">
[SFMA] - Story Focused Mission Arc
--- [NCMA] - Non-Canon Mission Arc (Not grounded in COH canon, an "Elseworlds" arc)
--- [HFMA] - Humor Focused Mission Arc
--- [DFMA] - Dramatic Focused Mission Arc
--- [FHMA] - For-Hire Mission Arc (Your character is brought in to work for the contact as hired help)
--- [VSMA] - Villainous Self-Motivated Arc (Your character has their own goals, contact helps you instead)

[SGMA] - Super Group specific Mission Arc (Specific for the author's SG. May not work well for others)
[RBMA] - Rewards Based Mission Arc (Use at your own risk. For 'legitimate' arcs only)[/list]
Challenge Level Tags:
<ul type="square">
[LBMA] - LowBie friendly Mission Arc
[MLMA] - Mid-Level Mission Arc (Appropriate for levels 20-40, Post SOs and Pre-Epic Pools)
[HLMA] - High Level Mission Arc (Appropriate for levels 40+)

[PCMA] - Pro Challenge Mission Arc
[TFMA] - Team Focused Mission Arc (Put in Both PCMA and TFMA to designate a Team Pro Challenge)[/list]
Server Tags:
<ul type="square">
[TMARC] Indicates arcs created by Triumph players[/list]

Notes:

- Adding these tags is purely optional, and at the author's discretion. Be aware that tagging you arc sets an expectation of the player for the arc to match what they are looking for in that type of arc, and if it does not meet their expectation it could affect the rating they give you.

- Some tags contain more specific tags under that category. More specific tags, especially without the broader tag, may cause some players to miss your mission.

- There is some concern that using the RBMA tag may make your mission stand out to the GMs, maybe even getting it banned as a "farm" mission upon first glance. If you use this tag, be aware that this may happen. My understanding is that if you feel your arc was banned in error, you can petition the ban and get the arc reviewed by the next tier GM.


Rather than continuing to bother the community team to keep editing this initial post, we have decided instead to post these tags on the paragonwiki site and maintain updates there. Here is the link to that page

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Mission_Architect_Tags

Please continue the discussion in this thread regarding the types of tags you would like to see used.

[ QUOTE ]

There's nothing to stop a farm from containing "story", or "drama", or anything to mis-flag it if they chose to do so, too. That's why I don't see this system as being viable.

[/ QUOTE ]

Its still easier to weed through the mistagged arcs than it is to weed through 20,000 arcs without tags. I don't think most people will want to mistag there arc intentionally, as a player going in expecting one kind of arc and getting another is going to rate the mission appropriately.

[ QUOTE ]
And sure, any system is abusable; I just think the suggested method is less capable and more abusable than a hard-written flag from the Developers. I'd rather see everyone's energy go into THAT rather than encourage a workaround designed by twits like us.

[/ QUOTE ]

No argument that the devs could do it better with the tools they would have available. The devs would also have an easier time of setting up exclusions, as in "Don't show me arcs with SFMA". But they cannot do it NOW. Until the devs get something in place, there is nothing wrong with the players stepping up. It doesn't exclude the devs from adding the function later. In fact, it helps the devs determine what kind of tags the players would like to see.

From the dev side, I would like to see the tags be a series of checkboxes, rather than a menu selection, so that you could select multiple tags, as some arcs cover more than one aspect.

Love the concept! I have a couple of toons I am going MA only with. One is a brute AT who is a hero, so all MA hero arcs for her. The other doesn't realize he's an Architect hologram and has no idea why his physical body seems to lose substance the further he gets from an Architect building.

The arcs in my sig will all work for your concept, I think. HISS and Heiress probably fits better for later levels. Low Tide is a lowbie mission. Found and Lost I would normall recommend waiting for early 20s, but could be done in late teens with Payne being a scrapper.

I have added the tag [LBMA] for LowBie friendly Mission Arc to my arcs that are lowbie friendly. Feel free to use the same tag in your arcs if they meet that criteria. If enough people take it up, it will greatly help people searching for these arcs.

Were you fighting particularly large spawns? I thought pohsyb also mentioned a per spawn cap.

I kinda felt that way too, Turg, but I think we have to start somewhere. And the MA is filling up way too fast to wait for the devs to put something together for us.

I searched for SFMA this morning and found three pages of arcs. Now, I won't limit myself to those arcs, as I will miss some good content from authors that don't have the tag, but it makes a good jumping off point. To me the tag is at least as good as looking through a post listing good story arcs, and really better since I don't have to tab out of the game to do it. And don't get me started with trying to search through the stories &amp; lore forum. As much as I would love for that to work, it just doesn't do that good a job.

Searching for Story, I see Eco's point. It brings up sometimes unwanted arcs. I have added [SFMA] to my arcs that fit. I am also going to add [LBMA] (LowBie friendly Mission Arc) to the appropriate arcs.

[ QUOTE ]
I have some questions for the creations posted after my last post.

[/ QUOTE ]

This one

[ QUOTE ]
I have a lowbie mission arc called Snake Tales (Arc ID #91268)that is designed to start at level 1.

[/ QUOTE ]

runs solo or with a team from level 1.

Low Tide (in my sig) is designed for a lowbie team, but can be soloed by most ATs if you take your time and manage the aggro. Some ATs might want to avoid the LT boss patrols.

First you have to decide on the categories, then you can decide on abbreviated words for those tags. Personally, I would rather see short word descripions over acronyms. Something like.

Tags: Story/Challenge/AV/Canon/Lowbie

[ QUOTE ]
Generally the arcs miss being Dev Choiced by things like "Oh, did I forget to mention there is an AV on this map?"


[/ QUOTE ]

Are you sending feedback in that regard to the author? If they fix that is there a process for being reconsidered? Or does the author just have to hope another dev wanders in

Just curious about the process.

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not sure if I should ignore that or drop the EBs to satisfy them.

[/ QUOTE ]

Its hard to judge the feedback you get, especially when you get three comments in ten minutes, one claiming the arc is too easy, one that says its too hard, and the third about how its perfectly balanced and so much better than what they have been seeing in the MA :/

I do wish you could tell the level and challenge level that the person played the arc at when you get the review, it would help a bit with perspective.

I have found that a boss set to Hard gets less negative comments than an EB set to Standard, but for all I know most people are encountering the Boss as an LT on heroic and not noticing how 'Hard' he is.

[ QUOTE ]
This even works with different detail types.


[/ QUOTE ]

To give another example of this, if you have a mission with the obejective "Collect the Files" You can put three sets of files on desks with the Nav text "Files to Collect" , and also have one "Fight a Boss" objective that has the text "Files to Collect" in the Nav Text and it will show up in the nav bar as "4 Files to Collect" when you enter the mission.

Maybe people are searching for and reporting arcs that have 'ticket' in the description as well and reporting them, without bothering to read the part that says "Mission three generates zero tickets. It is used only to progress the story."

And no, republishing does not save a local copy of the arc. I wish it would. Or, I wish there was a way to save a local copy while continuing to edit the published version of the mission.

For a really fun one mission story arc, try Nuking the Fridge, Arc ID: 28231. Help Radio expose Television's biggest blunders.


Also, for the story arcs found in my signature:

HISS and Heiress is a story arc where you help Manticore investigate Wyvern imposters and learn of a family secret.

Found and Lost sends you to rescue a kitty, and of course leads to more mystery and adventure

Low Tide is a quick little fun mission, meant more for a good lowbie romp than true storytelling, but it has some entertaining dialog and I have had numerous requests to turn it into a full arc. I'm working on that but I'll likely publish it as a sequel instead as I don't want to make that particular arc longer. Darn the 3 arc limit :/

I would love to see this on the main floor, near the inspiration vendor.

I would also love to see a trainer, but maybe not quite that handy. A trainer might work better on the ground floor. Admittedly, its more of a need in the early levels before you get a travel power.

Actually, claiming them or not makes no difference, as the Windfall line of badges are account wide, once you have them on one character, they are there for all.

Actually got the windfall through jackpot badges today, all through the unclaimed tickets being capped.

I &lt;3 feedback

Seriously, I love logging in and getting a screen full of tells! Its a great feeling.

But, I have to admit that I am shy about giving overly critical feedback, mostly due to fear of reprecussion :/

Diminishing Returns on Ticket Drops?

[ QUOTE ]
In fact, a red name came onto one of our more popular channels to vent about farms.


[/ QUOTE ]

Not sure how helpful that is for them to do that. If they aren't wanting farms, they need to post it where people will see it. But, I don't expect to see that post, because it would raise more questions than they are likely prepared to answer. Such as, "where is the line between challenge and farm?" and "do you consider the current dev content acceptable 'non-farm' missions?" Its such a subjective term that I don't envy them attempting to define it, but if they don't take a shot at providing their version of a definition, its hard to accept complaints that player content is exceeeding their desired limits.

I just wish they would tell us now and get it out of the way rather than waiting a year or two and then hitting us with Mission Diversification

I don't think they have mentioned a set schedule, and I would bet they are knee deep in bug fixes at the moment.

If they would fix it so that Hall of Fame arcs actually stay in the HoF for more than a few minutes we might start seeing some of those

Defeat all is rarely essential for the story and often irritating to the player who would otherwise find the story fantastic.

Fukushu, what's the Arc ID number?

Not a bad idea, though the post probably needs to be in the MA Stories forum.