Greyhawke

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2. They have increased perception

[/ QUOTE ]What's your proof of this? Because aside from critters with +per powers, I haven't noticed behavior any different from normal gameplay with regards to stealth.

[/ QUOTE ]this one is kind of obvious, they can see us from further away. Just play some of the custom missions. Its very easy to see even if they have no perception+ powers. Its almost like they are working together. Like they see their buddy in the next spawn getting creamed so they decide to go ahead and help out instead of looking like a bump on a log. We need this kind of thing on regular missions where critters can run get help. That would make for some interesting battles and it would make people value immobilize and range attacks alot more.

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It may be kind of obvious, but...

Its not obviously consistent. Facing enemies without +perception I have found custom critters much easier to snipe and pull just one or two from the group rather than the entire spawn. Its pretty much a subjective observation, but at this point that's all I can offer.

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I prefer NOT to die, but I am pretty blase given how tame debt has gotten.

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Besides, what else can you use that patrol xp for when you're running MA

Yeah, I find it ironic that most of my author tickets are generated from my shortest mission that hovers in the 3-4 stars. Honestly though, it makes sense, as many players look for the very short arcs, and many look for lowbie arcs as well which it also fits.

So, Zombie Man, what did you get with the roll?

Most missions that you would consider 'farms' would show up at the top end of any difficulty scale that you could set up to be measured automatically.

I agree that mission creators need to be careful when designing critters. What sounds cool doesn't always play so well. Test your arcs at the level ranges you intend to play it, and if you feel it doesn't work in the level ranges that it allows, make sure to mention in the description the levels you do recommend. Also, try to test with a variety of ATs, not just mez resistant scrappers and perma doms.

That said, players need to make some adjustments too. Take a step back and realize that the custom mobs ARE more challenging by their very nature. If you were just cruising through packs of mobs routinely in dev created content, you might not be able to do the same with custom critter packs. Take a step back. Don't jump into the middle of a pack unprepared and pull one or two more over without thinking about it. USE YOUR INSPIRATIONS!!! That last I really want to emphasize, as it is something I do not do in dev content except maybe for a particularly tough end boss or maybe when there are sappers around. With player missions using custom critters, I can use half a tray in some rooms, and fill it back as quick as I use them. Don't forget, you get badges for that!

As a player, I find myself using a greater variety of tactics when facing custom critters, and it has caused me to enjoy playing characters I had long since considered routine.

Is there a list of all the enemy groups available with level ranges? I'd like to be able to look it over offline.

Also, a more detailed list with ally and boss selections with level ranges would be fantastic

If the ticket cap is based on spawn size and number of spawns, and there is a limit of the number of spawns on a given map, then there is a maximum to the number of tickets you can get. I would be curious as to what that number could be.

The devs most likely don't care, overall, how many tickets you can get out of a mission. its really more related to how many tickets you can get per spawn and making sure that the spawns themselves are at least of some risk to the player, however minimal.

Compare it to street hunting. There is zero limit on the number of rewards you can get on the street. Its rewards per unit time and the risk you undertake to get them that really matter.

If the devs were truly freaked out over a 7,000 ticket count per mission, they could put a per mission limit in as well as the other calculations.

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Another I played was set back in the first Ritki Invasion. The goal was to hold your little patch of ground. It was the same map as the Psy-Clockwork King. That's a nasty map for a defeat all, but the purpose of the mission was to stop the invasion. There's not really a good story based way to do that and still leave some standing.



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Sure there is. The contact says "$name, if you can take down a few of the raid leaders, the rest won't put up much of a fight and the PPD can get in there and clean up." Reference the clean up in the return dialog as well, just be sure not to play down the character's accomplishments.

Just an example, of course, but you can work through the issue if you need/want to. The story doesn't have to end with the player, there are other people hard at work in Paragon as well. The character needs to stay the focus, but it feels much more dynamic if you at least hint at the fact that there is an entire world out there as well.

Ah, well darn, I was hoping to fix that inconsistency in my mission

I want to place a boss spawn for a standard boss, but I want the bosses 'group name' to show up as my custom group. Yet, no matter which direction I approach it from, the boss does not show up as a possible choice from my custom group. If I put the boss in his own custom group, alone, the entire group fails to show up.

I can select the standard boss from his standard group, but then the group name doesn't match. :/

Anyone know of a workaround, or am I just really missing something?

For reference, feel free to look at my lowbie friendly arc, Low Tide (arc id #1154). It's the Man O' War from the Hydra that I have as a boss spawn, but it is showing as the 'Hydra' Group as that is the only group he shows up from in the editor. I really want him to be placed from the custom group 'Big Bad' instead.

I even tried mixing custom bosses into the Big Bad group, and while this does make the group show up as a selection, the Man O' War does not show up in the group list.

Wasn't this a Twoflower arc? Search his name and you'll likely see it

Thanks for the info and the link, Lady S.

One thing on the wiki that reads a little confusing, to me, is that it mentions "it was a huge kill-all with lots of bosses, the mission complete Ticket bonus is rather large". This is actually misleading. It doesn't matter if the mission is a 'defeat all' or not, it only matters if the player treats it as a defeat all /before/ completing the last mission objective.

To me, this was the one truly disappointing thing about the MA design. The mission objectives have no effect on the number of tickets you get, other than affecting the number of spawns and how large they are. Your tickets are based solely on the mobs you defeat. Yes there are 'bonus multipliers' for a badge, for which mission in the arc it is, and for completing the mission, but for earning the tickets these bonuses are based on, its just what you 'kill'.

I understand the potential for abuse that has kept them from rewarding players for rescuing a hostage, finding a critical clue, accomplishing the mission within a time limit, etc. I just hope hey are able to find a way to overcome the problem so that we can offer players something other than 'beat on this bag of HP' for a challenge that has a reward. I hate running through a mission that really captured my imagination and had me hooked on the story, only to complete it and realize that my mission 'bonus' was 17 tickets.

Maybe they could add half a percent bonus to the mission bonus for each objective you completed, up to a maximum of 10% bonus? Or, give the autors the option to mark 5-10 objectives as "critical" and add 1% to the bonus for each critical objective completed. *shrug* I don't know, just throwing a couple of possibilities out there.

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Assuming we have "faith" in the voting system that is.

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I don't, do you? Not complete faith anyway.

Reaching Hall of Fame puts a big target on the arc that just begs the griefer to come by with zero stars. Its probably worse for those who are well known on the forums, because some people will take their disagreements from the forums to the MA ratings. Being able to get the near instant gratification of seeing them lose the HoF status will be more likely to draw them to this tactic than giving a bad rating to an arc on page fourteen.

I say lock it in HoF status, but allow voting to continue and be displayed, just the same as votes should be displayed with the Dev Choice arcs. This way, over time, the ratings will tell the tale, and it will not be as attractive a target for griefers because it can't really be demoted.

Am I right that this only affects destructible objects spawned after the mission has started, i.e. "triggered" destructible objects?

I seem able to place an object, or at least one object, from the start and be able to target it consistently

Nice idea, glad its working for you!

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The problem here, is that they probably have to completely disallow progress in the mission or completely allow it.


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I am thinking this is unfortunately the case. I could be wrong, the new Architect badges progress after all, but they could have been written differently. I have no idea.

Its a shame, really, as I am very interested in running a character 1-50 in the MA, in fact I've already started the project. Its disappointing that I won't be able to get the badges you normally get on the 1-50 journey, like the damage badges, debt badges, influence badges, etc.

I guess I will just have to farm those badges using dev content after I reach 50. This was supposed to discourage farming how again?

Pretty sure those were pulled during beta for one issue or another. Should be back in eventually.

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The only down side to searching by enemies group is that if people are using all standard enemies but putting them into new groups to ensure the correct types spawn for the mission then you will cut them out.

I am nearly finished a lowbie arc, 3 missions all 5th Column designed for solo or team in the 1-20 range but as I dont want any vampires or wolves I just picked the guys I did want and called them a new name. This means I know exactly what you will be fighting throughout the arc but it shows up as custom mobs.

I will post details when I get a chance to finish it!

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As a suggestion, you might add the enemy group you are emulating to your description field, so it still shows up in these kind of searches.

It would be nice to have a console in the base.

In the meantime, consider the power that comes with the Mission Engineer Accolade

(Quoted from the i14 Badges Thread in this forum)
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Mission Engineer - Accolade - Earn Ticket Master, Writer, Escapist, Thrill Seeker, and Customizer. Text: Your overall expertise in everything relating to the Mission Architect system has earned you the title of Mission Engineer.


Note: The Architect Mission Engineer Accolade gives the holder a macro button/power that issues the command "/architect" which brings up the MA GUI. That command works for anyone in the AE studio that contain the AE consoles wherever you are in the studio, including hovering near the ceiling. It also works anywhere in Studio B, so, you can look out the window as you interact with the mission creator.

The Accolade allows the one who has it to bring up the MA GUI anywhere in the game, and not just in the AE studios.

It appears in the Powers Window under Accolades as Architect Comlink.

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2. Get a Dev Choice, which will happen to maybe 1% of all arcs at best and only can happen once per author.


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As far as I know the 'Once per author' is not a limit of Dev's Choice. Here's the relevant part of the post from Mod 8 that others were mentioning (bold emphasis mine)

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Having your story selected for Dev’s Choice is beneficial in a number of ways. Dev’s Choice stories do not count against your total published arcs. If you have three published arcs and one of them gets turned into Dev’s Choice, you will be able to publish a fourth. If one of those three arcs gets flagged as Dev’s Choice, you will be able to publish a fifth, and so on.

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Here is a direct link to the post, in this very forum.

Some have mentioned that this policy was changed in late beta, but this post, despite what the date says, was posted AFTER i14 went live. The date of the posting is a forum glitch. If this had been on the forums sooner, it would have saved a lot of debate in the beta. I know it addressed a lot of my concerns.

Limiting Dev's Choice to one per author would be ridiculous. If by some weird moment of insanity they actually instituted that policy, it should be corrected, and fast. Not looking at an author's work because they have already received DC is just as bad as only looking at an author's work if they received DC.

One final thing:

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And finally there will be a forum thread called ‘Dev’s Choice: For Your Consideration’ where players can post arcs they think should be considered for Dev’s Choice. The two guidelines being, you can’t promote your own arc (that’ll likely happen in some other forum somewhere else) and you can’t disagree with anyone else’s suggestion (again, that’ll happen in some other thread).

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Can't wait for this one. There are a number of arcs out there deserving to be at least looked at by the Dev's, and this is a great way to bring some of them to light.

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To be specific. Hero themed MA for new characters and up.


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I want to run a character all the way through on MA missions, and I have been dying to play one of the villain ATs as a hero. I just never thought about combining the two. I'm going to work on that, thanks!

As to arcs that are out there, this first one is a shameless plug, an single mission arc of mine designed for lowbies.

Arc ID: 1154 Low Tide

Played a TA Defender solo, from level 1 to 10 on test with this one, so I know its possible

You might also try this one

Arc ID: 1080 Lure of the Tuatha

Its a full length arc (5 missions). The first three missions are Tuatha minions, so very lowbie friendly. The last two missions have custom baddies, and will most likely need a strong soloing AT or a team to finish, at least before you get your SOs. Well, maybe not, you can probably stealth a good deal of the last two if you're not hung up on maximum ticket gain.

I wonder if a cookie farm would get banned


In all seriousness, many of the dev created missions could be said to provide "unintended statisticcal advantage". Its a very arbitrary item to judge by. Don't get me wrong, I understand providing firm guidelines will just cause people to push against the line. However, I do think if they ban a story arc, it would be nice to have a message sent explaining what they thought was wrong with it.

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I just want to know when CoH: AE will be in stores so i can get my additional month and the superbooster for just 5 bucks more than i pay now.

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This.

I'm really excited about this one, although this may be the first booster my wife gets first

Yep, all in the building, though their are several buildings. One in just about every non-hazard zone. Those hologram contacts are the only contacts you get

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They do now!

Ex

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Still not seeing them

Ironically, this post by you is also not in the digest, nor the post you made in the same time frame to bump the i14 badge thread

This is welcome information!

Mod 8's posts need to appear in the community digest