Heraclea
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:The question isn't whether it's permanent. It's whether it's published on live or not.Originally Posted by Warkupo
They aren't. It's a band-aide. It's not permanent. -
Quote:Is it really? If this were true, it would not treat basic story telling tools as exploits.Originally Posted by Warkupo
This band-aide is actually taking steps to reverse that trend and make AE about creating stories again, instead of exploitative farming maps.
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Quote:Yes, I'm making a point. If the "fix" breaks so much, it's worse than what it was intended to cure. No conceivable exploit could possibly justify such a broken "fix". Reversion is the only right thing to do.Originally Posted by MrCaptainMan
You're just making a point, really, aren't you? Aeon has said that this fix is temporary and that a better one will come in I17 or soon after.
Our existing arcs will grow stale and may be eventually replaced; losing our reviews and ratings is a small loss, compared to what we lose the longer this broken "fix" remains in place, which is the dwindling interest the player base to check out actual creative material.
Our willingness to volunteer the content in AE is our only point of leverage here. We need to use it to send a message. It may not be heard, but it's all we got, and doing nothing is not an option I can live with. -
Quote:No, fortunately, you don't need a tanker for anything. I've tanked successful master runs of the ITF and Kahn on a scrapper that can hold aggro. It does, however, require a bit more practice and preparation than with the tanker, and Reichsman got away from me once or twice.Originally Posted by FireWyvern
Cause i never needed a tanker in anything else. Hell, i could probably do STF with a scranker, if i played more blueside.
Not sure I'd want to tank a STF on a scrapper, though. I'm sure it could be done. Some of the usual strategies would need to be modified. A scrapper might have some difficulty holding aggro on all four patrons at once; Mako would be a problem, because the scrapper has to hit him. The support would have to be even more on the ball for a scrapper tanking Recluse while the towers were still active. -
Quote:If the patch is falsely treating things as exploits that aren't really, that would suggest that .... the patch is wrong and broken.Originally Posted by Warkupo
But they haven't. Or at least they haven't said they were. In fact, they seem to entirely be implying that this is a temporary fix and they are working on a better solution.
If the patch is wrong and broken, and treats as exploits things that aren't really, the only right thing to do would be to revert it immediately, or at least within the next maintenance cycle. I'll at least give them enough leeway not to pull down the servers for a reverting patch cycle on the weekend.
Therefore, the patch cannot be wrong or broken, and must be working as intended. Everything that the patch treats as an exploit is indeed an exploit. Were this not the case, its immediate removal would at least have been announced by now, as the only conceivable right thing to do.
And since exploits are now defined by what the current patch treats as exploits, we'd do well to at least start planning to withdraw missions using exploits from circulation. -
Quote:If the devs have defined the use of non-combat NPCs as exploits and penalize their use, so they are. You want to change or withdraw arcs that contain exploits, obviously. It's the only leverage we have.Originally Posted by DeviousMe
Ouch. Did this change really hit that hard?
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The following arcs of mine are still playable:
Deth Kick Champions, 390856
I had to edit out several exploits: ally boss spawns meant to represent spectators and cheer the player through the long march to the final chamber where the action takes place. They weren't actual allies, and weren't meant to interact with anything; they were just inserted to make speeches. This leaves that mission rather lacking in flavor until you get to the final room where the encounter takes place, but so it goes, and these exploits were not essential to the plot. Apart from that, all NPCs in the arc are hostile.
Ecloga Prima: Hæc excursio in lingua Latina, 309162
A simple arc whose texts are entirely in fairly elementary Latin, the custom mobs in the story are all hostile.
Welcome to the Future, 326600
This is only a personal sandbox arc used to test out custom group mixes and concepts. Originally, it was designed to show that the custom critter nerf achieved nothing. All mobs are hostile. They may change periodically.
The following arcs are no longer worth your time. You should avoid them. They are likely to be unpublished soon:
Death by Snoo-Snoo, 247372
Revolves entirely around the "rescue a captive" exploit. 10 captives, including one used as a gimmick to spawn the opening ambush. Not worth anyone's time now.
Who is Kidnapping the World's Greatest Philosophers, 253920
Ditto. And I had just finished updating this with new foes and encounters.
Lesbian Hellion Liberation, 208830
Relies on exploits like ally rescues and friendly patrols.
Jerk Hackers!, 162492
This one contains only three exploits: captive releases inserted for flavor in the last mission. I may edit them out, although it will leave the last mission rather lacking in events.
I have already pulled The Great American Skull Fry!. This was my Dr. Aeon lowbie contest entry. The first mission relied entirely on multiple allies as plot elements, and as such was unsalvageably reliant on exploits.
I'd recommend that other authors review their missions for exploits like captive releases. Officially, now, AE is only for filling up maps full of hostile mobs; all other interactions are exploits. -
Quote:I can see your point. I still think that AE was an overall positive for the game, and perhaps could be again in the future.Originally Posted by Daemodand
Is the benefit worth the cost? IMO no, especially when considering the opportunity cost. The massive resources spent on AE could have been used to revitalize the low-level game, expand the high-level game, any number of things that would have improved the game and not brought the serious downsides brought by the AE.
The problem I was starting to have about a year ago was that I had fought the Skulls and the Council and the Malta so many times that I knew exactly what each mob could do and what I needed to do in response. Custom characters opened up the possibility of doing something about this. Unfortunately, the ability to create custom characters that gave full rewards was the first thing to be lost.
Now, we can no longer make stories featuring characters; all we are permitted is to fill maps full of enemies to mow down.
I don't see myself bothering to create any more content for AE under this regime, and I'm probably just going to pull what content I've already made, since it heavily relies on "exploits" like captive rescues. I would suggest that other authors whose content relies on these "exploits" do likewise; it's really the only leverage we have. -
Quote:Surviving them is not an issue. There's still no real substitute for autohit Taunt when you absolutely, positively, must hold aggro on the target. And Scrappers do not get that kind.Originally Posted by FireWyvern
Except scrappers? I think i remember some surviving AVs without any insps. One of them even survived 9 of them. So you really think a good scrapper with a decent build couldn't stand against 1-3 AVs with insps? Laughtable.
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Quote:Actually, that makes sense now that I think of it. I'd only slot it in Soul Drain if I slotted the rest of the set there, and I think you really need a bit of accuracy in there anyways. But I routinely slot that in Invincibility on my invuln characters. There it has a chance to fire every ten seconds no matter whether anything is there for it to affect.Originally Posted by Talen_Lee
Unfortunately, while you'd normally be right, Heraclea, you're not. Because Soul Drain has a base-line effect, it'll proc with 0 targets in the area... but it'll only ever try to proc once every activation.
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Before inventions and the reworking of IO set defense bonuses, I used to say that it's easier to add damage to a tanker than defense to a scrapper. Now, I think that's no longer the case.
With the right power sets (lots of AoE and something with a taunt aura) a scrapper can be built that can fulfil a meatshield role on 95% of the content. This is how I built my favorite scrappers and this is how I play them. I have tanked most of the game on them for full teams.
The advantages of tankers, like an autohit Taunt (I never take Provoke even on a tanking scrapper) and higher defense caps and hitpoints, only really come out in the archvillains of late game content. And here, there's not really a substitute for the tanker, so the tanker needs to build with an eye out for this role. -
Is it possible to republish an arc from a separately saved file?
I'm in the process of removing exploits like captive rescues and flavor NPCs from my stories to the extent possible, and removing the ones that are focused on those exploits. I'd like to be able to save the current versions and replace the live ones with saved versions of my current ones if it is ever decided that captive rescues are not exploits again. I am not sure I know how to swap in the saved versions without unpublishing and republishing. -
It would have one chance to go off for each enemy in range when the power is used. I don't think it stacks with itself, though; if it goes off on two enemies you only get one build up effect.
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Quote:If this is the case, it means that their battle was essentially won before this patch went into place. The really effective exploits have all been ironed out of the system, putting the people who want it easier than the devs think appropriate in Architect to resort to their oldest and least effective tool. Buffbots have been a feature of some missions since AE went live.Originally Posted by Arcanaville
There's only one reason that can cause that that I'm aware of. The devs have datamined evidence in hand that the problem is being leveraged to increasingly higher degrees, and across an increasingly wider percentage of the player population. At that point, and this is true for every MMO dev team I've ever heard of, action is non-negotiably mandated. You can still argue what but the option to argue if disappears.
You can debate the philosophy if you want, but you'd basically be arguing to repeal gravity.
This patch essentially tells you that it's OK to fill maps full of enemies to mow down, but you can't make a rewarding mission that uses other kinds of characters. And yes, indeed, this is indeed so wrongheaded, so perversely contrary to the devs' stated goals for AE, that it ought to be undone. The damage it does ought to outweigh any concern about the oldest exploit in the system. -
Quote:Your basic plan looks sound, although I'd probably want to move Rage up to 28, move up Tough and Weave, and move the passives back. I think you may have overslotted Health in pursuit of bonuses, but that's a personal preference. The chief problem that I see is that you skimped a bit on your most basic attacks. You aren't getting all you could out of Tough, either.Originally Posted by Sweetcake
My tank is currently lvl 42 and so I figured I'd start planning my build out, I have at least half the enhancements in the build and 1-2b left I could spend. I don't really want to be spending all my cash on purples or pvp IOs so this is what I came Up with, I plan on upgrading it as and when I have the cash. Anyone tips are much appreciated
I moved some slots and sets around and made this:
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.621
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Sanguine Anabasis.: Level 50 Mutation Tanker
Primary Power Set: Invulnerability
Secondary Power Set: Super Strength
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Resist Physical Damage -- ImpArm-ResDam:40(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx:40(3), ImpArm-ResPsi:40(15)
Level 1: Jab -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg:35(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx:35(3), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg:35(15), HO:Nucle(29), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:35(31)
Level 2: Temp Invulnerability -- RctvArm-ResDam:40(A), RctvArm-EndRdx:40(5), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx:40(17), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:40(36), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg:40(37)
Level 4: Haymaker -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg:35(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx:35(5), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg:35(17), HO:Nucle(31), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:35(34)
Level 6: Dull Pain -- Mrcl-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:30(A), Mrcl-EndRdx/Rchg:30(7), Mrcl-Heal:30(7), Numna-Heal:50(37), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:50(37), Numna-EndRdx/Rchg:50(42)
Level 8: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A), LkGmblr-Def:50(9), S'dpty-Def:40(9), S'dpty-Def/EndRdx:40(43)
Level 10: Taunt -- Mocking-Taunt:50(A), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg:50(11), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg/Rng:50(11), Mocking-Acc/Rchg:50(46), Mocking-Taunt/Rng:50(46), Mocking-Rchg:50(50)
Level 12: Unyielding -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx:40(A), RctvArm-ResDam:40(13), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg:40(13), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:40(34), S'fstPrt-ResKB:30(34)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Jump-I:50(A)
Level 16: Swift -- Run-I:50(A)
Level 18: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+:50(A), Numna-Heal:50(19), Numna-Heal/EndRdx:50(19), Mrcl-Rcvry+:40(45), Mrcl-Heal:40(45), RgnTis-Regen+:30(45)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod:50(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc:50(21), P'Shift-End%:50(21), EndMod-I:50(46)
Level 22: Knockout Blow -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(23), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(23), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(40), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:50(42), Mako-Acc/Dmg:50(42)
Level 24: Invincibility -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A), LkGmblr-Def:50(25), S'dpty-Def:40(25), S'dpty-Def/EndRdx:40(43)
Level 26: Tough Hide -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx:50(27), S'dpty-Def:40(27), S'dpty-Def/EndRdx:40(43)
Level 28: Resist Energies -- ImpArm-ResDam:40(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx:40(29)
Level 30: Resist Elements -- ImpArm-ResDam:40(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx:40(31)
Level 32: Rage -- AdjTgt-ToHit/Rchg:50(A), AdjTgt-Rchg:50(33), AdjTgt-EndRdx/Rchg:50(33), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx/Rchg:50(33)
Level 35: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(36), RechRdx-I:50(36)
Level 38: Foot Stomp -- Erad-Dmg:30(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:30(39), Erad-%Dam:30(39), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:30(39), Acc-I:50(40), HO:Nucle(40)
Level 41: Boxing -- Acc-I:50(A)
Level 44: Tough -- ImpArm-EndRdx/Rchg:40(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx:40(50), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:40(50)
Level 47: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A), LkGmblr-Def:50(48), S'dpty-Def:40(48), S'dpty-Def/EndRdx:40(48)
Level 49: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I:50(A)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet
Level 0: Ninja Run -
Arcs by genre. This thread differs to the CoHmatoes thread as it links to authors' information (sometimes posters!) instead of reviews. A
Note: I cleaned up some of the formatting and deleted any obviously broken URL tags for the sake of readability. I could not figure out how to fix the bullet color-coding.
2nd Note: I've had some problems when displaying this page while having the "Number of Posts to Show Per Page" set to a high number (in my case, 100 posts per page). This causes a programming error on the forum, leading to non-display due to the large amount of text in the posts. Drop your limit down to 20 posts to work around the issue. -Turg
Bullets colored for heroic/neutral/villainous. Non-existent arcs removed. Lists alphabetized. Arc IDs updated.[/color]
AE System- 15+ Min TUTORIAL = Knowledge is Power: Architect Entertainment & YOU! (I15) #28470
- 5th Anniversary Flashback Smackdown #126896
- 'Captain Dynamic, the Great, Faces the Great Face' - Tryouts #190069
- Death for Dollars #1050
- Signal to Noise #67277
- Welcome to Architect Entertainment #1004
- A Hero is made, Not Born #20863
- A Mother's Nightmare #6955
- A Rose's Thorns #113224
- Birth of a Fossil #18632
- Jumping in Feet First #1345
- Midnight Bells Toll #?
- New Flame Rising #161066
- Noah Reborn #2370
- Of Futures Past #254599
- Polar Emergence Neutral Government User Interface Network (PENGUIN) #29205
- Secret Origins(Tech) The Snake Women of Epsilon V #42221
- The Amazing Rat Race #1144
- A Crusher Crimewave #1 : Crisis at The Citadel #179354
- A Crusher Crimewave #2 : Escape from The Zig! #83458
- A Crusher Crimewave #3 : The Fall of Mocker #123613
- A Show to Die For! #30645
- Check... and Mate #15095
- Daybreak Patrol Needs Help # 321834
- In The Shadow of Statesman #1160
- Marketing Opportunity #83747
- Paradox Paradox #69221
- Sidekicks Can Be A Pain In The Cape #28430
- Teen Phalanx Forever! #67335
- The Golden Age Secret of the Paragon Society #344596
- This Life Immortal #5756
- 'Tis Nobler in the Mind #257226
- To Save A Single World #83744
- A Show of Hands #296884
- A Translator is the Wind or the Thunder in Turns #2936
- Celebrity Kidnapping #1388
- City of Norms #132944
- Daytime Divas #94504
- Death to Disco! #84420
- Doctor Nadir and the Hellion Heist #49661
- Ee-Ai-Ee-Ai-Oh! #3662
- Gnomish Madness #30204
- Hail to the King #34640
- In Poor Taste #259920
- Invasion on Earth BX1132! 98943
- Jerk Hackers! #162482
- Laugh? I Thought I'd DIE! #68429
- MacGuffin Delivery Service 1567
- Martian Chimpanzees and the Cyborg Cheerleaders of DOOM! #69947
- Mean People. #16690
- None More Black, Dude! #86312
- Papers and Paychecks #298290
- ParaCon #1684
- Rise of the Drakule #51357
- Return of the Revenge of the Son of Drakule Part 2: First Blood #84543
- Shirley You Jest #25474
- Shortbow #143566
- Teen Phalanx Forever! #67335
- The Extadine Lab #2595
- The Fire Bunnies #10377
- The foul-mouthed Handyman! #1076
- The Invasion of the Bikini Clad Samurai Vampiresses from Outer Space! #61013
- The Minimech Cometh #119664
- The new and improved Lord Recluse Strike Force #7901
- The P.U.G. Strike force #35585
- The string thief. #15726
- Too Many Bunnygirls! #101165
- Trademark Infringement #2220
- Walk On the Wild Side #3580
- You Say It's Your Birthday! 3630
- Cause of How Some Silly Stealed My Wings #1481
- Death by Snoo-Snoo! #247372
- Fashion Apocalypse #14840
- Females for Hire #110723
- Fishing for Fame with Red Herring #66861
- Freaks, Geeks and Men in Black #161629
- Have a Blap, Blap, Blappy Day Kids! #2019
- How to Survive a Robot Uprising #12669
- It's a Nice Day for a White Wedding #9059[
- Kidnapping an Idol #136188
- Papers and Paychecks #298290
- Putting Out Fires: A Corporate Satire #20100
- Rum Runners of Bloody Bay #3691
- Teen Phalanx Forever! #67335
- The Cat's in the Cradle #8776
[COLOR=blue]
- The Running of the Bulls #29973
- TURG FICTION: Ghost in the Machine, Act I #1013
- TURG FICTION: Ghost in the Machine, Act II #174557
- TURG FICTION: IX #351787
- The Toypcalypse! #49280
- A Little RnR #17523
- Battlin' Tom's Murder Extravaganza! #99803
- Bricked Electronics #2180
- Celebrity Kidnapping #1388
- Fatale Attraction - Part 1 of 3 #181264
- Fatale Deception - Part 2 of 3 #227466
- Fatale Corruption - Part 3 of 3 #232783
- Females for Hire #110723
- Lesbian Hellion Liberation #208830
- Mechanical Mayhem #76721
- Meet the Demon Spawn #151099
- Slash DeMento and the Stolen Weapons #100045
- Plastic Pistol Peril #1135
- Talos Vice #338380
- The Bravuran Jobs #16809
- The Internet is for Crime #53385
- The Superadine Revolution #262739
- Whitehawks #113811
- [ZQ] Power Play #187269
- 7662 - The Fan Club #5898
- A Flame the Burns Bright #112548
- A Warrior's Journey: The Flower Knight Task Force #260284
- Clonus, Parts 1 & 2 #21499 & # 21290
- Digital Love #3571
- Matchstick Women #3369
- Of Mentors and Legacy #1589
- Questionable Ethics #393301
- Talos Vice #338380
- The Conciliators: Simone #4010
- Axis and Allies #1379
- The Twilight of this Blue Orb #98529
- Celebrity Kidnapping #1388
- Easy Money #31490
- The Great Diamond Heist #96169
- A Wrinkle in Time #266880
- Destroyer of Worlds #352820
- The Consequences of War #227331 and 241496
- The War on Superadine #151088
- [ZQ] The Once and Future King #71601
- Battle of 15 April #72140
- City of Ho Ho Ho, or A Claus in Paragon #18775
- Hectic Holidays #36999
- Santa's Missing List #34961
- Santa's Workshop of Misfit Toys #134140
- All Consuming #261148
- Astoria in D Minor #41565
- Creepy Crawlers #82553
- Dark Dreams #3615
- Die Count Daddy Macula Die! #10619
- Don't Play With The Dead #260107
- Duality #84105
- Hunting the Hunters #93362
- I Will Dance On Your Grave #92630
- Lights, Camera, Scream! #177826
- Project: Perilous - Into the Chthonian Pit #3586
- Small Fears #12285
- Something Comes to Yarmouth #58812
- The Amulet of J'gara #1709
- The Children of Astoria 217499
- The Zombie Apocalypse Task Force: Something wicked this way comes #91456
- Attack of the 50 Foot Villain #363366
- Akhdar Blood #247198
- Alpha and Omega #60015
- Bleed the Freak #6919
- Breaking The Barrier (And Putting It Back Together) #347029
- Flight of the Valkyries - Precursor #20272
- Is it Live or is it Memory-X #70210
- The All-Seeing Eye #57352
- The Clockwork War #18672
- This Is War, Part I - the Revenge of Hro'Dtohz -- Neutral 1356
- War of the Worlds - The Anakim Invasion - Part 1 #15006
- War of the Worlds - The Anakim Invasion - Part 2, The Terran Revolt #46711
- Win the Past, Own the Future #1429
- A Deal with Destiny #61748
- A Dream of Awakenings #132616
- Chains of Blood #4829
- Croatoa's Great War: The Parfait Family Reunion #71880
- Deal with The Devil's Pawn #207266
- I Will Dance On Your Grave #92630
- Rex is Missing! #51702
- The Magical Miss Fitz #5079
- The Shadow Rune of the Warlocks - A Moth Cemetery Tale #124319
- The Tannhäuser Gate 96322
- Axis and Allies #1379
- Red Typhoon #4912
- Redoubt Operations #1: Fires over Kalago #1297
- Redoubt Operations #2: Wrath of the Imperium #269283
- Whitehawks #113811
- Impossible Kung Fu Mission #111367
- A Glitch in the Wyre #73197
- The Council Cargo #36951
- Hero Therapy! (TM) #119228
- The Second Coming of the Mega Mech #122274
- Who is Kidnapping the World's Great Philosophers #253920
- The Legion of Mutants vs. the Iron Agents #200364
- A Hero in Need...is a Friend Indeed! #375018
Blowback #4643
- Dream Paper #1874
- Females for Hire #110723
- Hunter of Beasts: It begins with a riot... #110465
- The Fireside Poet #189439
- What Rough Beast #255143
- Atlantis Attacks! #30898
- A Warrior's Journey: The Flower Knight Task Force #260284
- Madness And The Minotaur #90124
- Rites of the Maenads #61159
- Tales of Cimerora, volume 1 : Of feathers and fur #12647
- The Aegis Affair #16376
- The Four Treasures of the Tuatha De Danaan #164100
- The Parable of the Fruit Salad #65369
- The Seeds of Yggdrasil #48907
- 7662: The Seelie War #2462
- 7662: The Unseelie War #2453
- Ecloga Prima (Haec excursio in lingua Latina) #309162
- Brass Reaver: Part 1 #244755
- Rise and Fall of the Iron General #142200
- The Handbag Plot #36414
- Hunting the Dark Dragon -- Heroic #2922
- Papers and Paychecks #298290
- Playing Gods #51106
- Time's Maelstrom #182874
- The Praetorian Invasion of the Land of Oz #168841
- Grim Riddles #1396
- A Warrior's Journey: The Flower Knight Task Force #260284
- Above Mars - Part 1: The Wellington #159769
- Adventures of the Space Marines #2133
- Adventures of the Space Marines 2 #2171
- Assault on Aru Prime #174856
- City of the Apes #171184
- Spaced Invaders #77971
- That Mysterious Buzzing Sound #12774
- The Adventures of the United Earth Rangers #29549
- The Balance of Power #26931
- The Continuing Adventures of the United Earth Rangers #70237
- The Fracturing of Time #171031
- The Knights of Rularuu #75386
- The Nemesis Theory - #171203
- The Portal Bandits #3326
- Welcome to Donut World! #1233
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This arc has been unpublished. This was necessary, because it contained exploits.
I wrote this one especially for Dr. Aeon's second mission architect contest. The theme of the contest revolved around creating missions for levels 10 and under, and heroes losing their powers. I tried to depict this by contrasting two allies, and having Flower Knight come to the rescue of a mostly helpless but still combative Statesman.
I did not know at the time I wrote it that the use of multiple allies in this way was considered abusive. Now that I do know, I have removed the offending story. Other missions in the arcs included exploitative elements like captive rescues; they were only there to add features and flavor and could have been removed; but in the mission in question, the exploit was inherent to the story, and I could not figure out a way to depict the same plot elements without resorting to these abusive features. -
Quote:I have quite a handful of historical figures, including William Shakespeare, Betsy Ross, Ranavalona, Saint Dominic, and Madame Nhu. I also have literary creations like Belphoebe (from The Faerie Queene) and mythological figures like Yansan and Mayahuel. Since all of these names and characters are part of the public domain and historical record, I feel perfectly free to help myself to them.Originally Posted by flashrains
Okay, here's something I was thinking about on my way home today. As we all know, we're supposed to only make characters in this game that are 100% our own creations. As we also all know, not everyone does that... and sometimes, it's okay.
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Quote:I'm not all that upset about it, but yes --- the disconnect between what the patch note said this was doing, and what it actually is doing, is so large that it seems not to have gone some basic quality control. Again, reducing XP for free a captive objectives penalizes authors for writing the same kinds of missions frequently found in official content. ("5 office workers to free" &c.)Originally Posted by Eva Destruction
I would like to know what suddenly made the problem so bad that a solution had to be implemented RITE NAO, while a new issue is in closed beta, preventing it from being tested at all.
Your stop-gap solution would be bad enough if it only affected allies. It does not. It is flat-out BROKEN. People figured out that it was broken within about an hour of the patch notes being posted. So please explain how something so broken ever made it to live, I would really like to know.
On the other hand, buffbot allies have been around since the Architect went live. I agree that something probably needs to be done about them. This patch does way too much collateral damage; the fix is worse than the problem. Buffbot allies have been around for a year now. The 75% xp for custom mobs has been around since before September. I don't see the urgency in pushing a patch to live that spoils half the story tools to fix a problem that, while real, doesn't seem to have that kind of urgency.
I also understand why it's currently inconvenient to test AE changes separately on a test server. I also understand why it might seem desirable to push exploit fixes onto live without announcing them beforehand. To be perfectly honest, this seems to have been inadequately tested before release.
It's obvious from the discrepancy between intent (the patch note) and reality (the actual effects in missions) that this is not working as intended. I really think that it's better to endure the buff bots a little while longer, and to roll this back rather than allow it to continue on live, not working as it should. -
Quote:It is a pretty absolute barrier to actually completing the mission; if that hold hits, and it always has a chance to, there's essentially nothing you can do, as the OP found out. I'd call that a bug.Originally Posted by Bill Z Bubba
Why are you telling someone to send in a bug report on something known not to be a bug?
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Quote:Ghost Widow pretty much defines the broken gimmick fight. Yes, as has been pointed out, her hold is mag 100. You can try to eat a bunch of purples and hope you are able to defeat her before they run out. Or you can just drop the mission and /bug it. If it is Daedalus's arc, that's not the last mission in it.Originally Posted by Largo
Trust me, I dont mind dying, but I have a feeling it should not be THIS easy for her to kill a hero. It was like her hold had a mag 100 when it should have been mag 10. I just really am wondering if something is broken here.
The Stolen Power arc is worth the princely sum of 2 merits, if I remember rightly. -
Quote:And that's what I would call a farm. It doesn't take much creativity to fill an entire map with spawns of critters to mow down.Originally Posted by Dispari
The looming restriction placed on editors now because of this change prevents us from using about half of the objectives. Pretty much the only safe thing we can do now is make nothing but missions where you only fight badguys.
I'm not terribly worried about this, because I think it's pretty obvious that this patch failed to achieve its goals, and did far too much collateral damage. And yes, it would be better to roll this back and endure a week or so more of buff bots in missions --- they've been around since Meow and Cow were king --- than to leave up a patch that is fairly clearly not working as intended. -
It's pretty destructive to pretty much all of mine; most of them feature multiple captive releases, or stand-alone captive releases whose purpose is to insert flavor text. My second Dr. Aeon contest entry, The Great American Skull Fry, is particularly badly struck. Here, one ally was added specifically for the purpose of being mostly useless in content, to fit the theme of "hero loses his powers". And, as an arc designed to be played by level 10-15 players, I think it's safe to say that XP is a legitimate issue.
I have a design philosophy that holds that mission briefings, debriefings, and clues are not the place to advance your story. They tend to be rather team unfriendly; they have to be looked for specifically, you may not know when a clue has been added, and debriefings are only readable by the team leader. Every text that develops story or theme ought to appear in mission entry and exit popups, or NPC chatter. This way the text is presented to the entire team, and the leader is not the only one reading it. So I use a lot of non-combat NPCs. I don't really care all that much if rewards are reduced for allies, but this goes too far in reducing rewards for captives. You can't create missions that resemble dev content ("5 office workers to rescue") without reducing your rewards substantially. There's a wide discrepancy between the stated intent of the patch note and what this actually does, which suggests to me that it is not working as intended.
Oddly, the one unaffected arc is .... the proof-of-concept arc I made to demonstrate why the custom critter nerf achieved nothing worth doing. This, fortunately, is the arc I use for tickets runs, and I swap in new sets of main custom enemies tailored to the character I want to run it on. That one includes no captives or allies in the main mission. -
Quote:It's pretty destructive to pretty much all of mine; most of them feature multiple captive releases, or stand-alone captive releases whose purpose is to insert flavor text. My second Dr. Aeon contest entry, The Great American Skull Fry, is particularly badly struck. Here, one ally was added specifically for the purpose of being mostly useless in content, to fit the theme of "hero loses his powers". Since that's designed to be played by level 10s, I think it's fair to say that XP is a fairly important consideration.Originally Posted by Capa_Devans
Today I realized that this patch kills both of my arcs.
Oddly, the one unaffected arc is .... the proof-of-concept arc I made to demonstrate why the custom critter nerf achieved nothing worth doing. That one includes no captives or allies in the main mission. -
Regardless of the perennial debate about XP in Mission Architect, this latest patch is not working as intended.
It is not confining itself to allies. It also affects captives and escorts that do not fight, do not buff, and formed no part of any exploit. If you want to make MA stories that resemble official content ("5 office workers to rescue") you cannot do this without sending your reward structure into the toilet after this patch.
It would seem to have been inadequately tested, and ought to be rolled back. The fix is worse than the problem here.