JeetKuneDo

I guess I should put mine up now.

title: Nerf Herder must go!
#2649 (comedy)
2 mish, 1 EB in first, 1 AV in 2nd. Lower diff if solo.

Nerf Herder and his infamous Anti-fun league are on the loose! They are teaming up with the exiled (and angry) 5th Column to acquire a shipment of nerf bats to use on the playerbase.

You've got to stop that shipment and ban Nerf Herder from the message boards!

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Mission name: The Fire Bunnies
Description: The bunnies got loose and need to be gathered...FAST!
Length: Very Short


Arc Name: The Fire Bunnies
Arc ID: 10377
Faction: Fire Bunnies
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Bubblegum Bomb
Difficulty Level: Extremely Challenging, but soloable if you get the drop on them!
Synopsis: Something isnt right about these little bunnies. All you know is they are extremly dangerous and need to be put back in the crate at all costs. The Chared box leads you to belive: This isnt going to be easy..
Estimated Time to Play: About 30min
Link to More Details or Feedback: We had a lot of fun testing this mission. I hope everyone enjoys it. Its short and quick if you can get the drop on them, other wise you are in trouble!

[/ QUOTE ]

Took us a little longer then 30 min when we upped the diffuculty... We got OWNed by these Bunnies! Even though the mission was small and a LOT harder then we anticipated, we all couldnt stop laughing at the sheer humor in the situation. Not to mention they aal started to do CRACK once they killed all of us.. (ever see NPCs with Speed Boost x10?!?)

[/ QUOTE ]
I had to try the fire Bunnies too.

Cool to fight some fire/kins with my fire/kin. Now I see how irritating she is. I did ok until the main bunny rezzed behind me when I wasn't looking and caved my scull in. Loved the concept.

[ QUOTE ]
Ok, here is my mission now on live servers everywhere =P I've updated the original arc I posted before, so it's more fan-tastic than ever before!

Mission Name: Don't rain on my parade!
Arc ID: 1614
Mission(s): 1
Genre: Comedy

Description: The 23rd Freedom Phalanx Parade has been sabatoged! Can you save the day?

I've added in new clues which act as a sort of side mission within the mission, new dialogue from wandering patrols, and hopefully a pinch more comedy. I hope you guys enjoy it!

[/ QUOTE ]
Just tried it and liked it a lot. The wacky ally costume was cracking me up. The Jerry guy was soo arrogant! lol...

[ QUOTE ]
why not take an SO'd hero... tons of people still use the plain old SO's Make a second version of a couple of your favorite/more common heroes.. say fire/fire blaster, a sword/regen scraper, perhaps a defender of some flavor. test the arcs with a set up like that.

Also in the descrption why not say whats the arc is ment for. easy for everyone, IO'd 50's only!.. must have team.. blah blah. Or Arc tested on list at's Something for people to compare

[/ QUOTE ]
Not bad. I think I will list that my Scrapper soloed it easy while my Controller and Defender had a tougher time. I tried it with my lvl 50 AR/Dev Blaster (on Heroic) and did fine also. He went slow, but the normal tactics worked. (Dev is always slow if tactics are needed)

I also just remembered I tried it with a lvl 50 Necro/Dark MM and plowed through it.

I did finally get a group of 8 to try it yesterday. But it was a horrible test. For some strange reason, everyone loaded into the mish, took off in 3 different directions, and we team-wiped. I was baffled at that behavior...where did that come from? (I had been invited to a PuG and we ran a couple of radio missions before that without this happening.)

I suggested that we stay together after hosp. Naturally I DC'ed as soon as I went to the hosp and the team was disbanded by the time I "verified all files" (much longer than it normally takes to do that of course) and got back in. I'll admit I cursed over that lost opportunity to see how it would play with a full team. That may not come around again.

[ QUOTE ]
Optimal balance? Hmm shall we ask the devs about that one.

There is none. Best you can do is make it balanced as you see it, give plenty of warning about a challenge EB/AV, put an ask in the description for the player to ADJUST their diff level as warranted. Even the devs can't make it balanced for all peoples skills set, AT's, powerset combos and difficultly levels.

[/ QUOTE ]
Just to be clear, "ask" means "adjust your diff as needed"? (I may not be up to date on the abbreviations. )

Probably a Nemesis plot to get us to have more than one account.

I've got 3 accounts, so that's 9 MA slots. I have to admit I currently don't have enough ideas to fill that many. (But I've only been thinking about it a couple of weeks after all.)

It's possible that I don't mind pulling down one arc to publish another one. Not likely I'll be losing a lot of ratings. I've got 4 ratings on the one I've got now so that's not a big deal. (4 stars! HoF here I come!)

[ QUOTE ]
So, after a few recommendations from my wife (basically it was like CHANGE THEM or else), I toned down my Vampire Bunnies so they would use a much more docile power-set combination. However, it seems like my "work" was not yet done.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
I checked the editor and could not see any way to tone-down the difficulty of the End-Boss, so instead, I did the only fair thing I could do, which was to put a secret-Ally in the mission! It is now up to the player whether they want to work towards getting that secret-Ally to come and help them against the End-Boss, or not.

[/ QUOTE ]
That's not a bad idea. (Runs to AE to edit) I've got an Ally in the 2nd mish...but it's a mission goal...I should change that to "optional".

We'll probably just all end up making stuff we like and hope for the best.

I did just scale down a few of the critters in mine just in case. (I can always tell myself they aren't a problem for me because I'm just that awesome. )

[ QUOTE ]
One of my first comments on an arc complained about glowie clipping issues and fine details of spawn placement - things it's basically impossible for MA writers to correct!

Maybe Issue 14's title really was "Well, let's see how YOU like it"

[/ QUOTE ]
Hee hee...

I went for a comedy arc. I've gotten good feedback on that...but if it's too hard/easy...sheesh...

This could kill 100% of the complaints on this message board that deal with things like this. The old, "if you think you can do it better....do it" nugget applies.

Good idea. I'll bet they get around to that. This is only going to get better and better.

The Devs have to be smirking somewhat.

I take a week to build up a two mish arc. I place some custom mobs.
I ran a test with a Scrapper. Hmmm...they seem too easy.
I ran a test with a Defender. Hmmm...they seem too hard.
I ran a test with a Controller. Hmmm...they seem about right.

So I got a few people to help me test it.
They said it was a little too easy. I changed it around a little. Added a few bosses.

Now I publish it on live.
Got two tells yesterday saying it was way too hard to solo. (one was a lvl 22 Scrapper, one was a Defender) So I dialed the bosses back slightly. (Very cool that one of them said he didn't rate it because it would have been a "1" to give me a chance to work on it.)

So I'm at a loss. I still think it won't be a problem for a team. But it might be too much to solo. (Or not...my Scrapper still laughs at it.)

The Devs have to be smirking somewhat. "Have fun balancing your missions guys! Enjoy the feedback you get!"

(plug: arc #2649)

Arc Name: Defeat Nerf Herder
15904
Neutral
Length: Short
2 Mish: 1 EB in first, 1 AV in 2nd

Comedy (It makes me laugh anyway...) Tried to have a little fun. Put in a little story and quite a bit of dialog. (watch for a talking computer and an homage to a famous movie)

I've soloed it with a lvl 50 Scrapper and lvl 50 Controller on Rugged....so hoping it isn't too hard or too easy. I found one critter blinded too much, so I removed that. (perma-blind basically)

Welcome comments on the difficulty...I'm finding that tough to gauge.

Oh man....this is fun reading.

[ QUOTE ]
We haven't gotten any indication that you can just say "use Psychic Violet", but you can load a costume file (saved from the Tailor), and after that it's just selecting which powersets the character has.

[/ QUOTE ]
That's pretty freaking cool.

Sheesh....this gets better and better the more I hear about it.

[ QUOTE ]

However, as I understand it, you can save your mission or mission arc at any point in it's creation, so you do not need to create a mission that requires 3+ hours of work all in one sitting. You could put in 30 minutes a day until it's done.

[/ QUOTE ]
That's good to know. I was worried about that.

I do hope we have some kind of shot at purple recipes. I like to know I at least have a chance to get one when I play.

On the NPC helper thing... It seems like it may speed up your XP gain per minute to the point where you break even....especially if you are a low damage AT. (This may be seen as an unfair advantage to the high damage ATs by some...they may come out ahead.)

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
<em>"NCsoft is handing over creative control to the player"</em>-<a href="http://pc.ign.com/articles/957/957168p1.html">IGN </a>(Feb. 2009)

[/ QUOTE ]

This one doesn't sound like a positive.

[/ QUOTE ]

Heh, was thinking the same thing. Can be either positive or negative depending on how you look at it. Guess that makes it a neutral.

[/ QUOTE ]
I say positive.

We do have some creative people playing this game. (Go check out the pics of bases in the base forum if you don't believe it)

A lot of those creative people will be willing to spend hours upon hours working on this thing. Don't be surprised if there are some amazing missions as a result. And the best part is that there should be something for everyone. If you like "wordy walls of text"...I'll bet you get it. If you like "get to the point and let me kill something"...I'll bet you get that too.

I can't wait.

[ QUOTE ]

You read that wrong. The published stories in the MA are cross server and cross faction. Anyone character can run any mission on any server. BUT teamplay and the like is still the same. That is, you can still only team with players on the same game server that you are logged into.

And what said that it's 3 publishing slots only. It's not a technical limitation. (At least I hope not; otherwise, pohsyb and I will some "discussions" ). Maybe one can earn more slots as rewards?

[/ QUOTE ]
Ahh thanks. I can see the technical limitation thing.

Does "the same game server that you are logged into" mean blue and red? (I understand we may not know this stuff yet)
edit: NM....we do know.

[ QUOTE ]
another poster, JohnathanBloom, found this:

http://www.massively.com/2009/02/26/...ity-of-heroes/

[/ QUOTE ]
Am I reading this right that we will be able to play with people from other servers on either side?

That could solve a lot of the complaints from people on low pop serves who don't want to move.

3 story arcs per account seems low. I thought it was 3 per character.

[ QUOTE ]
And id like to point out "AGAIN" that the temps are unenhancable and generally terrible compared to pool equivilants. They are also available to everyone, including 60 month vets, so we all can deal with having them until our travel power (at level 8 or 14, either or). So there is no point mentioning something that is accessible to all and subpar by comparison in everyway as an excuse to allow this precedent of imbalance.

[/ QUOTE ]

What you left out:

1) Temp travel powers allow you to save TWO power picks to get a travel power
2) Temp travel powers allow you to save a POWER POOL pick to get a travel power

You can easily grab the early one and make it last until you are able to get to the Shadow Shard for an endless supply of them. At most, you would have to take a travel power late in the 20s somewhere and then could respec out of the whole thing once you unlock the Shard.

By way of comparison, the vet reward only allows you to save ONE power pick to get a travel power and does NOT allow you to save a power pool pick at all.

Sounds like a fair trade off. If this is such a great advantage, then the Vets aren't doing as well as the player that skips the power pick completely. (Which ANYONE can do)

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
So....which is "tier 1"....Hurdle or Sprint? Hover or Air Superiority? Hasten or Flurry?

[/ QUOTE ]

Technically: Sprint, Hover, and Flurry.


[ QUOTE ]
The word "tier" does imply the lvl you can take it. A "lower tier" or "higher tier" anything is not something with the exact same requirements. In this case...lvl 6....you can take either of the tier 1 powers in a pool. You certainly don't have to do anything extra to earn what you are referring to as "tier 2". (And we still don't know which power is "tier 2")

This was just badly worded for what they mean.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, the term "tier" has never had that meaning generally accepted. Players have consistently referred to both the final primary power and final secondary power as a "tier 9" power, which ignores level availability. In fact, the phrase "tier-9" itself has been used often enough that it has a special meaning: the phrase "Instant Healing is Regen's best Tier-9" has unambiguous generally accepted meaning. But even discounting that, if I were to ask players to name the tier 8 power in Energy Blast and Energy Manipulation, I'm reasonably sure the overwhelming majority would be naming Explosive Blast and Boost Range, not Nova and Boost Range.

Furthermore, during the Defiance 2.0 discussions, the three powers you can use while mezzed were most often referred to as the "tier 1 and 2 primary powers and tier 1 secondary power" and not the "three tier 1 blaster powers." This was true by overwhelming margin, even though the second phrase would have been shorter. Its obvious most players are not inclined to describe powers in that way.

Just for fun, I decide to search for the word "tier" among all of the threads I have saved from the forums 2006 and earlier, and interestingly I found *zero* instances of people referring to powers by "tier" except for tier 9s. I found several instances of people referring to inspirations by tier.

Random sampling of relatively recent posts shows the term "tier" when used to refer to powers to most often refer to "tier-9" powers; the first two powers in primaries or secondaries are most often referred to as "tier 1 and 2" and much less often referred to as "the two tier 1s;" and in context are often used specifically to refer to order where no other terminology exists (tier 6 invention bonuses, tier 2 inspirations, tier 3 mastermind pets). It is only very rarely used to denote level-unlocking.

The most common usage of the word tier by overwhelming margin is to denote the place in the order of a list, where the list has well-accepted definition in context (the "tier 3 pets" for masterminds for example are a generally accepted synonym for the tier 8 mastermind primary power entities). The presumption should be that the phrase "the tier 3 power of the flight pool" refers to Fly, given what the majority consensus meaning of the word "tier" would be in almost every other context.

(The most likely way to naturally reference all four powers of a power pool would seem to be to refer to "All powers in the Flight pool" rather than "tier 1, 2, 3, and 4 powers in the Flight pool.")

[/ QUOTE ]
All this confirms what I suspected...

We are using the word "tier" wrong.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I didn't write the game, or anything it in.

*Attempt to explain Dev Logic begins* Some Primaries are shared. What may be a choice to you may be predetermined for others. So, that means that it's safe to call those powers Tier 1-9. Now, Power pools are the same for everyone, and have the powers available at different 'Tiers' for Everyone, so it's ok to refer to THEM as 'Tiers' also.

[/ QUOTE ]

Powers in a shared powerset are not available at different ‘Tiers’, they are available at different levels.

As I mentioned before the word tier is a widely accepted term to number the powers listed in any given powerset. Each powerset has nine powers commonly referred to as Tier 1 through Tier 9 powers. Whether a shared powerset is a primary or secondary for a given archetype does nothing to change this numbering system. If the powerset is your primary then you may choose between the Tier 1 and Tier 2 power from that set at level one. If it is your secondary then you are automatically assigned the Tier 1 power.

By applying the same rules of terminology to the Power Pools you have 4 powers in each set numbered Tier 1 through Tier 4 and at level 6 you can choose between the Tier 1 and Tier 2 power from any one of the Power Pool sets.

If you are using the term ‘Tiers’ as a reference to the times when a given power is unlocked in a given powerset I will agree that you may choose to call that a tier as well but by the same token you can call it Susan or cumquatif you like. As that is not the widely accepted usage for the term 'Tier' in the game it cannot be said to apply here.


[/ QUOTE ]
So....which is "tier 1"....Hurdle or Sprint? Hover or Air Superiority? Hasten or Flurry?

The word "tier" does imply the lvl you can take it. A "lower tier" or "higher tier" anything is not something with the exact same requirements. In this case...lvl 6....you can take either of the tier 1 powers in a pool. You certainly don't have to do anything extra to earn what you are referring to as "tier 2". (And we still don't know which power is "tier 2")

This was just badly worded for what they mean.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I wonder if the tier 4 power will still require that you pick 2 before it, or if it will only require that one?

[/ QUOTE ]

There is no Tier 4.

There is the 1st Tier (Where you can pick two powers).

Then there is 2nd Tier, which requires that you have one of the 1st Tier powers and 12th level.

There there is the 3rd Tier, which requires 2 powers of 1st and 2nd Tier and 20th level.

So I'm not exactly sure how this unlock works. Does the badge allow you to unlock 2nd Tier and 6th level along with 1st Tier travel powers? And then you can get 3rd Tier at 12th Level?

[/ QUOTE ]

Of course there is a tier 4 - Group Fly, Group Teleport, Vengence, etc.

[/ QUOTE ]
Something is badly worded here.

When you can pick either Hover or AS, that would be a "tier 1". If not...which one is "tier 1" and which one is "tier 2"?

The wording is causing some confusion. There are 4 powers but clearly only 3 "tiers".

[ QUOTE ]
Put yourself in thier position. They have to offer things as Vet rewards that are fair and balanced. Meanwhile nomatter what it is, you have people on the forums screaming that it's overpowered and gamebreaking. AND at the same time people saying it's lame and weak and they aren't even trying.

What would you do?

[/ QUOTE ]
Hee hee...if both sides are complaining...that's probably a sign it's really fair.

(Like how if only Conservatives or Liberals complain about a news network....there is probably a problem.)

[ QUOTE ]
But I think we are a long way from being in a game where the devs should start giving up and planning for the end.
I wouldn't want to be in a game where the devs planned based on possible game death,
so I won't be a part of encouraging them to gain that attitude.

[/ QUOTE ] \
Not a bad point at all.

You could word that many ways of course. The way you word it sounds a lot different than "Being realistic in their planning".

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I would argue (and this is a slight derail) that any player who's already been playing (and paying) long enough to get the 60 month badge would be doing so with or without veteran rewards. Implying that people only remain loyal to the game because they are rewarded with veteran powers seems intellectually dishonest to me.

[/ QUOTE ]

People do not "only remain loyal to the game because they are rewarded with veteran powers", vet rewards are PART of why people stick around, and that's good enough.

[/ QUOTE ]
How many people are we talking about here?

I'm dying to meet a person that sticks around to get vet rewards!

Vet reward fan: "(sigh) This game is kinda blah....but I'm hanging around for that costume piece with my next vet reward. And I get a respec after that!"