Hydrophidian

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The autocomplete on entry missions are just a bug in MA that should be fixed. An Ally goal set to to Single is not a legitimate goal, and arcs containing them should not be publishable. If there are similar immediately completable goals they too should inhibit publishing.

The goal is not to take away your right to poke someone in the eye. It's to eliminate griefing and voting cartels who can vote up undeserving arcs that they never even entered.

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Okay, see, this right here... if something like this happened, it'd infuriate me.

If you're taking away options and tools from creators in order to combat abusers of a lousy ratings system, your priorities are entirely skewed, and Mission Architect is, at that point, an utter failure.

The goal of Mission Architect is to facilitate player-created content. That's what it's about. Ratings PVP is not what it's about. Taking away from the former only to make the latter more difficult isn't a viable solution. And that's all you'd be doing.

"An Ally goal set to to Single" is a legitimate goal. Sorry. I've used it for story effect multiple times. Have I ever made it the sole objective of a mission? No. Would I care if it were changed so that it couldn't be the sole objective? No, I wouldn't. But you wouldn't fix anything by doing that.

Because then all anyone would have to do is add one glowy to the front of a small map to achieve practically the same insta-complete result.

So, what then? Make it so you can't place glowies up front? Okay.

Then people will make missions that can be easily stealthed, with just one glowy to click.

What then? Remove glowies entirely? Make it so you must fight a boss in every mission? Even if you went that far, people would just make a totally gimped boss to fight.

See where this is going?

The ratings system is fundamentally and irreparably flawed. The problem is not the abusers. The problem is the built-in incentives for abuse. Any solution that doesn't involve removing those incentives is not a solution, as the abusers will always find a way around whatever obstacle you implement.

I want MA to evolve into greater functionality and versatility, not less. I'm already wrestling with its current limitations. I want to be able to do more with it. Watering it down for the sake of propping up some ridiculously broken ratings system is just... completely befuddling and "bass ackwards" to me. It's entirely the wrong direction in which to proceed.

There are quite a few things I'd like to add.

Sadly, the arc file currently sits at 99.don'teventhinkaboutshovingsomethingelseinhere%

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I havent heard anyone called a dork in a really long time.

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You gotta go old school to bypass the forum filter.

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Yes, but isn't Dork an obscure Marvel superhero who appeared in 1 issue of a What If comic in 1976 and therefore trademarked?

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You're thinking of Doctor Dork, and it was a filler story in issue 6 entitled "What If... His Name Had Been Victor von Dork?" Much disco hilarity ensues.

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Well, in a way, that's almost as bad. True, 1-star ratings are worse than no ratings, but let's say Venture just didn't like an arc that maybe -you- would like. But now you won't play it, because -he- said it was bad or had a BadTrope.

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...

Getting an idea of which arcs to check out and which ones to avoid... isn't that the whole point of reading reviews in the first place?

If I find a reviewer I tend to agree with, why would I play an arc that has been panned by that reviewer?

There are movie critics I'm usually in agreement with. If they don't like a movie, I tend to avoid it. There are also some critics I almost never agree with. If they don't like a movie, I'm inclined to go out of my way to see it. Plus, I generally avoid whatever they rave about. Overall, this approach has served me well.

There are other factors that can come into play, of course. Like what my friends think, what I personally think about a particular director or actor, and what my expectations for any particular piece happens to be (I don't go to some movies expecting a strong story, for example, I'm just in it for the visuals). But, by and large, I read movie reviews to get a sense of whether I should bother or not.

Don't see why arc reviews should be any different?

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I don't have time to run or participate in this kind of campaign myself, but I'd love to hear what others are doing along these lines.

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Right now I've an ongoing arc that actually started on Test. It spotlights a friend's character, but has been designed to draw in other characters as it unfolds. So far, I've managed to pull that off.

The kick-off was a 2-mission arc, investigating a new and dangerous drug hitting the streets of Paragon. For reasons I won't get into, 'cuz it'd require lengthy explanation, the central character was ideally suited to head up this investigation. She got some friends (sg mates) to help.

They broke the drug ring, but it raised more questions than it answered. Many roleplay scenes ensued. The characters set out to analyze samples of the drug, in order to hopefully gain some clues. This drew in other characters, and actually involved some dice rolling.

Second MA arc was a dream sequence--a nightmare--experienced by the central character, allegedly caused by the antagonist (encountered in the first arc). The character is certain she was accosted in her dreams. Others are not so sure. More RP scenes bloom out of this.

Next MA arc focused on gathering samples of extremely rare and preternatural substances to match them against the drug analysis. This arc ends with a choice for the central character: get the last ingredient via an easy and morally questionable way, or choose the far more dangerous but "right" and proper option. Which mission she gets now will depend on her choice.

The most gratifying thing about this process has not actually been the arcs themselves, but everything that's gone on, roleplay-wise, between them. For this reason, I recommend that anyone thinking of using MA this way should break up their story into installments for maximum roleplay potential.

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Oddly one of mine still got a bunch of ratings at a four star average, although I can't imagine why, as I don't see how anyone could really understand the story unless they were involved in the RP events that led up to it.

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My guess would be you had a team that did it, and they just liked the style of it.

My friends and I will sometimes do random MA arcs as a team. We've come across a couple of arcs that were obviously meant for a specific SG, but we did them anyway.

On one of them, even though we didn't really know what was going on, the arc was so comparatively well-crafted and detailed, not to mention fun to play, it got high ratings from us. We didn't dock it anything for not being clear, 'cuz we knew going in that it wouldn't be.

So, you should probably just take it as a compliment on your mission design. Heck, maybe it was your arc that we did.

tl;dr

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Joking.

When I'm soloing, I tend to read everything.

So, when making an arc, I try to "add a lot of flavor" up to and including non-required glowies and such.

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LOVED this arc. Played it recently with a friend, and will play again and recommend it to others, anon!

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Yay! \o/

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- The opening arc says I'm talking to this guy to "save the world". Hmmm, makes me wonder why a CoT would even be talking to me ... he is a villain after all. Maybe a little more of an intro about how I even heard of this guy and why I'm meeting with him.

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Okay! I imagine it went something like this...

* Objective: Learn About Doomsday Device (Defeat 30 Nemesis)
* Task Complete! Return to Contact!
* Contact: "They didn't know anything? That's a surprise! Well, okay then. Better go interrogate some Council!"
* New Objective: Learn about Doomsday Device (Defeat 40 Council)
* Task Complete! Return to Contact!
* Contact: "What, they didn't know anything either? Wow. But one of them suggested the Circle of Thorns? Huh. Well, okay, let's give it a whirl!"
* New Objective: Learn About Doomsday Device (Defeat 50 Circle of Thorns)
* Task Complete! Return to Contact
* Contact: "Now we're getting somewhere! But we'll have to crack this encryption spell in order to understand these messages. Better get these to Dr. Cheng in Independence Port.
* New Objective: Take Coded Messages to Dr. Cheng
* Task Complete!
* Dr. Cheng: "Yes, I can break this spell and decipher the text. But I was just about to bring this coffee to Miriam Bloechi. Perhaps you could bring it to her while I work on this for you."
* New Objective: Bring Coffee to Miriam Bloechi
* Task Complete!
* Miriam Bloech: "Thank you. It's delicious. Oh, I borrowed this pen from Dr. Cheng yesterday. You could return it to him for me..."
* New Objective: Take Pen to Dr. Cheng
* Dr. Cheng: "It appears a mage named "Baktaxus" is responsible for much of this correspondence."
* Task Complete! Return to Contact
* Contact: "Baktaxus? Never heard of him. But, hey, any excuse to crack some more heads, right?"
* New Objective: Find Baktaxus (Defeat 60 Circle of Thorns)
* Task Complete! Return to Contact
* Contact: "Wow, this guy is obscure! Maybe try the Thorns out on the islands?"
* New Objective: Find Baktaxus (Defeat 75 Circle of Thorns in Talos Island)
* Task Complete! Return to Contact
* Contact: "Finally! Better go get this guy, time's wasting. Hey, you've been a pretty good sport in all of this. Here's my phone number."
* New Objective: Defeat Baktaxus and Minions
* (Baktaxus is found in a "Purple Caves" map, in the multi-tiered "Cake Room". Defeating him takes 20 minutes. 19 of those minutes are spent trying to get him unstuck from the wall).

...There ya go!

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- Way too many "!". Almost every sentence!!!!!

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Of course!

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- ".... cramp a lot of plans ...", I guess that's something like crimping plans?

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Wow.

Y'know, the development of this arc started on Test, during the open beta. I've looked at that text over and over again and played thru the arc a bazillion times now. Many others have played thru it as well, including a professional editor.

That typo has been there since the beginning, and you're the first one who's caught it. Good job!

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- Almost every mob had a control power...

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They're all identical, so they all have it. Buckshot, I think it is. It'll get yanked when they let us remove individual powers. Those guys are supposed to be complete pushovers. I think I watered them down as much as the current system allows.

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- The AV was a Lieutenant, maybe that was an intentional joke

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Yes. The character is named 'The Arch Villain'. He apparently thinks too much of himself.

The challenge of that mission is meant to be the time limit. The mobs are quite intentionally not challenging.

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Just a little polish and I think this could be a top tier comedy arc.

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Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for catching the typos. Particularly that very elusive one that's dodged capture since the very beginning!

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Very, very few players will be able to get dozens of people to play through their terrible arc and 5-star it (unless of course, they don't actually think it's terrible.)

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I can make a 1 mission arc right now where you walk in and you immediately get a mission complete.

The solution you're proposing won't do away with rating circles. We'll just get buried in an avalanche of "very short" arcs. You might change the complexion of the problem a bit, but it'll still be essentially the same problem: The current system is broken. If it's not going to fix the problem, I don't see the point in doing it.

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(And given that there's a "trick" to zero-starring, that option doesn't seem to be intentional.)

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As Positron has specifically pointed out that it can be done, and how, I wouldn't be too sure about that assumption.

I'm with Emberly on this (see posts upthread). The stars just gotsta go. Making it so people have to play through the whole arc in order to rate it won't fix the current system. A couple of the current problems will be diminished, a couple of new problems will be introduced, and a handful of other problems will remain unaffected. Overall, it'll still be broken: not fulfilling its intended purpose.

Hey, thanks for the feedback! Glad you guys enjoyed it!

Couple points in response:

<ul type="square">[*] Maub will get a bit of a downgrade when we're allowed to drop individual powers from characters. She's definitely harder for some than she is for others (hence the presence of Baktaxus).[*] Baktaxus is quite fond of the word "anon"... fond in the way a Valley Girl is fond of "like". That's why it's in the mission heading. [/list]Again, thanks for playing!

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And lets be honest, a rating on an arc you haven't finished is disingenuous no matter how bad the arc may be, or how much you may feel they deserve it. Just like a rating on any other form of media.

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Couldn't disagree more.

Honestly.

Forget the Rose, Send Me the Thorns
ARC ID: 8925

Length: Medium (3 missions, 2 of them timed. This arc can easily be completed in under an hour)
Morality: Heroic (because the devs hate villains)
Genre: Supernatural Comedy (okay, just comedy, really)
Difficulty: Easy - Medium (due to custom groups, I recommend using higher level characters ... or "toons" if you must)
Solo Friendly: Yes (I've routinely soloed it on my lvl 50 Storm Defender, while on Heroic and while eating a sammich, without any trouble at all)

Description: The Oranbegan mage called Baktaxus has vital information that could save the world from imminent destruction! He's willing to give you that information... but only if you do a little favor for him first!

Feedback encouraged!

Emberly,

I like your proposal. I've been thinking along similar lines.

Re: Rating System...

I think it comes down to one question: Is the purpose of the rating system to bring "quality" content to the top of the list?

If so, then the system is worthless. It clearly isn't getting the job done. How I feel about it isn't really relevant. It just straight-out doesn't work, yo. This... is a dead parrot.

Bonehead Move #1 was using a 5-star system. Especially after having witnessed the significant flaws in such a thing on these very forums (and then, I might add, removing it due to those flaws).

Bonehead Move #2 was linking badges to the ratings system.

It really needs to be scrapped entirely. They need to go with something more along the lines of Emberly's suggestion, and they need to not attach badges to the ratings system in any way, shape, or form.

Honestly, I gotta wonder how such a thing even made it past the initial discussion phase. "Let's Attach Badges to the Ratings" should've been tossed on the heap with "Let's Make All the MA Maps Pink" and "Let's Randomly Insert AVs Into People's Arcs."

I mean, honestly. What were they thinking?

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To me, that's putting the RPG in MMORPG.

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Well, yes.

While I do have one arc published for general consumption, thus far most of my MA work has been dedicated to character-oriented and supergroup-oriented stories. I write the arc and publish it, the group or person it's been written for plays it, and then I unpublish it.

I currently have one ongoing storyline that's now up to six missions (spread out over 4 arcs). I have no idea how long it'll ultimately be, as it evolves based on the choices and actions of the players involved.

And they seem very happy about that. What they do can actually change the course of the story and has lasting consequences. It's a novel experience in an otherwise very static world.

For me, this is a tremendous strength of the MA system.

I'm just curious... how many other people are using it this way?

...Just to update the situation.

Been playing for a couple hours now without incident, yay!

...Aaand it's starting to boot me again.

This issue pretty much renders the game unplayable, so I guess I'll go find something else to do until it's resolved.

Okay, this appears to still be happening, though it's not as bad.

Last night (early this morning), it'd happen at the top and bottom of every hour. The spotty connection would last for 5-10 minutes, and I'd usually get disconnected and denied access to the game and website during that time.

Now it's happening at a quarter and three quarters past the hour (so this is probably a 27-29 minute process, whatever it is). I'm getting mapserved, but I'm not actually getting knocked off the game. Yet.

Yah, every half hour.

I'm also having problems. I can't stay on the game more than 20 minutes or so without getting mapserved a few times, then booted. Then it takes a few minutes for me to be able to get back on. And while that's happening, I can't get to the website either.

Is there a breakdown anywhere of all the new costume pieces?

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The only purpose of playing your own Arcs solo, that I can see, would be to rate your own work and I find that unethical.

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You can't rate your own arcs.

Reasons for playing your own arcs after publishing:

1. You enjoy it (I've had a lot of fun going up against my own custom creations).

2. Quality assurance/testing (No matter how polished an arc is, there's always a possible typo here and there that you missed the other bazillion times you went through it).

3. Inspiration (improvements to my arc have occurred as a direct result of running through the current version and getting ideas in the process. Actually experiencing the play-through helped in better determining where the story should go).

Every play-through of your own stuff has the potential for granting insight, even after publishing.

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Fast forward to Issue 10: Invasion. We now introduced a mission that heroes could take that involves them going up against rogue Longbow agents. Suddenly there was a “legitimate” way to earn the badge. I use quotes around that because earning the badge involves farming the mission over and over to get the requisite 1000 defeats needed for it.

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Not really.

While farming the mission is certainly one way to get the badge, running thru the RWZ arc with different friends and PUG teams on multiple different occasions with the same character is another way of getting it. And given the presence of Vanguard merits, it's not so unbelievable a scenario, either.

That's not farming, so the quotes around legitimate can be nixed. I've made a fair degree of progress on that badge on one character without even trying.

FYI.