LLamaBoy

As far as I'm aware, they don't - except for the AE Day Job specifically stating that you get extra tickets. The others that award bonus salvage on mission completion, for example, don't work for AE missions.

I'm having a similar problem, with only a single Ally objective in the mission. Broadsword/Shield and he never has his shield out or activates any toggles. I suspected that the Captive objective I had in the same mission may have been interfering, but switching the order, the positions in the map and eventually removing the Captive altogether make no difference. My Ally is still without protection.

Edit: After changing the difficulty of the Ally's Shield set, it appears that he is activating the toggles, as he now gets the effect of Active Defense (I think, not too good with the Shield powers); only the shield model is not appearing following a redraw of his sword - or any other animation, I presume.

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Officially announced April 24 2004.

Went live October 31 2005.

I looked it up previously and can't be bothered re-linking.

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Hopefully either:
1) it doesn't take that long this time
2) we get issues released between I15 and Going Rogue

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I'm pretty sure it won't take as long as CoV did considering (as I've mentioned before):
<ul type="square">[*]The CoV announcement was barely after CoH had gone live, so they had likely done very little to no work on the game's assets. Going Rogue's mechanics and content are probably in the early to mid stages already.[*]5 new ATs with their own mechanics probably took a fair amount of the development time. Granted, we don't know if GR will have new ATs, but I personally don't expect another 5 entirely different ones.[*]The team was significantly smaller and less experienced throughout the dev cycle, with a lower budget. With NC's backing, Paragon Studios can put a lot more effort into reaching milestones faster.[*]CoV was in closed beta for several months. With GR only having an open beta phase (as far as I'm aware), bugs may get squashed a lot quicker, leading to a faster release.[/list]

Bubble wrap control.

Candle Jack for those who don't kno

Might I take this moment to point out Dungeons &amp; Dragons? Good/Evil-Lawful/Chaotic. A system invented years before computer games were sophisticated enough to include those kinds of scales.

The fact that CoX is adopting a moral compass is simply a natural progression of the game based on the world setting. I highly doubt it's any kind of kneejerk reaction to the new Star Wars MMO having a similar thing. After all, as others have mentioned, it's not a last minute idea; it's likely they've been moulding the game for it for several issues and had been planning it long before we even saw any changes ourselves.

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I'm just wondering when the video actually takes place since the fact that there is a story arc that has Tyrant capturing Statesman and taking him to Praetoria in the game already, it'd be kinda weird for them to be acting like it's the first time they've seen the place if it is in the present.

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I'd say it's a fairly recent event, i.e. after his rescue from Praetoria. Statesman himself doesn't seem to express any kind of surprise about the appearance, only Desdemona does. I would assume that she's only just turned up after defecting from the Rogue Isles and States is briefing her on Tyrant and his world. Could be the situation is caused by Maelstrom leaving the blues and joining Tyrant's group, providing them with the info they need to start a large scale attack.

So... Motorcycle travel power in I17?

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Great deal. Wish I did it.

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Don't quote me on this, but I'm fairly confident the offer will still stand for future booster packs too. So don't forget about this option when Super Science comes around!

"HQ, I've located the zombie streaker. Any chance of some Mindbleach when I get back from this mission?"

Arc Name: The Two Powerful Ones - Introduction
Arc ID: 20235
Faction: Heroic - although Villains may find it acceptable if you aren't too evil
Creator Global/Forum Name: (@)LLamaBoy
Difficulty Level: Fairly easy, most ATs can probably solo it with ease - One custom lieut uses /nin, so he may prove tricky until the damage bug is fixed.
Synopsis: A new group has suddenly appeared, raiding various areas of the city. But what exactly are their plans?
Estimated Time to Play: 3 mission arc - I'd estimate 40-60 on a first run through.
Link to More Details or Feedback: Thread here.

I've got an idea for a villainous arc that is somewhat similar to the Radio/Television arcs in that you're not specifically hired to go and perform tasks, but something points you in the right direction for your evildoing. I've not got all the elements down yet, but I'd like it to have a kind of trippy, mindscrew sort of feeling when you go through it.

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I am looking for some feedback from some open minded users on the following arc:
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Arc Name: et tenebrae erant super faciem abyssi
Arc ID: 16252
Faction: Both (will be villainous on Live)
Creator Global: @Sermon
Difficulty Level: Easy/Medium
Synopsis: Tale, in Latin, of Romulus' rise to power.
Estimated Time to Play: 4 missions, 40-60 minutes?


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This arc is in Latin, but I would like to think it is enjoyable for even those who don't understand the story (think of how many people play arcs without reading anything anyways). This is main feedback, in fact, that I want. What is the impression of this arc for someone not knowing Latin? How does it play?

Also, there are several placeholder character descriptions, bosses, maps at the moment (only because I am waiting to use unlockables until live to avoid any potential problems).

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Darn, I wasn't first.

I had a go at this, but contrary to Heraclea above, I can't read Latin at all. I could guess a few words or phrases but I'm afraid the majority of the plot events were completely lost on me.

That said it was fairly enjoyable, if a little repetitive with the multiple cave settings. I particularly liked having the army of */Nins help me beat up all the EBs.

I didn't bother rating it though, as I felt it would be unfair without knowing the intricacies of the story.

Kudos for writing it, hope it finds some more people who will appreciate it

Thanks for the review and rating, Stormy_Defender, much appreciated.

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Had a hard time keeping track of what all the dialogue being shouted was. Proximity of some of the battles led to a lot of message bubble spam appearing on the screen.

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I was sort of going for a chaotic, invasion type feeling there. You could be right though, the battles could be a little excessive.

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I'm not sure I cared for the constant coloring of the faction names in the contact dialogue.

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I'm sort of in two minds about this matter. My first arc does the same thing in highlighting every instance of a group or character's name. I understand how it might distract a reader from the rest of the text, but on the other hand it gives skimmers an easy way to pick out the important plot points. I may reduce it if I get more comments against it.

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Once again, however, I was able to ghost to the glowy and end room with little difficulty.

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I realise that's a possible problem with some of the objectives, but I really don't like forcing people to fight and spend a lot of time in a mission if they don't want to. I could have made it a kill all, but they generally annoy me. I may find a way to add some extra battles in there though.

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I didn't see the last hostage: Commander A.C. Teon until after I'd taken out the Matron. Not sure if he was a pet that would have helped in that fight or not, but it was managable so that's okay.

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Nah, he's not an ally. I sort of made him as a red herring, to mislead players into thinking they have some help before he runs off

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I did notice that when I rescued AC that his dialogue cut off, "I need to debrief the h" Might need to edit that a little.

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Thanks for pointing that out, I guess it got snipped with the text length reduction. Fixed now.

Once again, your review is appreciated, hope you had fun running the arc.

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Here's my arc:

Arc Name: Twisting Time
Arc ID: 15528
Faction: Neutral
Creator Global/Forum Name: @BlackSkull
Difficulty Level: Hard on higher difficulties
Contains some custom characters
Synopsis:
It's fairly story heavy so you get a pretty good explanation as you play, has to do with time travel, but the title kinda gives that away.

Spent the better part of 2 days tweaking this one so any feedback would be appreciated

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Just gave this a run through solo on Heroic. I noted down some of the typos I noticed and general comments.

---- Possible spoilers after this line

Mission 1:
No spelling errors, fairly standard opening mission. Nothing wrong to my eye. EB Dr. Aeon to defeat at the

Mission 2:
A few typos and comments about the briefing:
<ul type="square">[*]"...not to late to fix things,we just need..." =&gt; "...not too late to fix things, we just need..." - An 'o' need to be added to "too" and a space after the comma.[*]"Stabilizer" has an 'i' missing (reads stablizer)[*]"...will work, well, it will..." =&gt; "...will work; well, it will..." - the first comma could become a semi-colon to avoid running on the sentence.[*]The entire first sentence about sending me to get the parts could be removed. It reads a little repetitious as it is.[*]The phrase "ironically enough" could be enclosed in commas, as an aside remark.[*]The final sentence which starts "Oh, and, ...": The comma after the "and" could be removed. Maybe make it italic or encase it in asterisks to add emphasis. "Oh, *and* you'll need to...".[/list]
Into the mission:
Lots of boss encounter spawns. Are they really necessary?
The patrols are speaking as though they've seen me already. Patrol text should generally be idle chatter or flavour text.
The clues you get from the glowies aren't really very descriptive. Maybe write something about how they look or feel or sound like, etc.

Popup on exit is missing a period at the end.

Mission 3:
Nothing amiss in the briefing as far as I can see.

Into the mission:
Eh? Council base? Stop a robot? Defeat Requiem?
Another EB to fight.
Why does Requiem's dialogue have a German accent? I thought he was Italian.

Job done, but the whole mission seemed a little out of place. There was no real narrative to explain what happened or why I was there, and the contact just shrugs it off.

Mission 4:
Ok, briefing's fine. Into the mission.
Small map, some Arachnos and suddenly a custom boss. He hits pretty hard and has lieut accomplices. Took me a couple of defeats to take him down. Slightly bothersome, but a challenge.
Another period missing on the popup.

Mission 5:
Small typo in the briefing: Did you mean "special prison" or "spatial prison"? At the moment it reads "spacial".

Into the Mission:
Small map, patrols of random mobs. Nice touch.
The Nemesis patrol's comment about not being in Peregrine any more kind of repeats the reference in the 3rd mission's popup though.
The Cimerorans' comment of "How dist we get here?" is taunting my pedantry gland. If you were trying for a Olde English style dialogue, it should be "didst". But even then, they're Roman
Another boss. Different sets, still with a couple of lieut cohorts. Again, a little annoying but doable.
Destroyed the objectives, now the last guy.
Popped my powers and some insps, engaged the EB. Electric melee and Inv, oh goody.
Fianlly took him down after about 15 mins and a couple of defeats after he used his Unstoppable.

Arc over.

---- Possible spoilers before this line.

Ok, overall, that wasn't a bad arc. The story has a lot of good ideas in it, although they could do with a bit more fleshing out narrative wise. Maybe some clues on mission completion.
That third mission seemed completely out of place to me, I felt there wasn't any real point to it. If you can tie it in better with the plot, it might work.

There seemed to be a little too much emphasis on EBs and AVs (bosses and EBs for scaled down soloing) for my liking, almost every mission had at least one. Furthermore, the second mission had lots of deliberate boss encounters placed around the map. They seem a little unnecessary in my mind. Maybe a couple for flavour text, that's all. If you were triyng for a challenging arc, then fair enough, I retract my criticisms about the bosses; but I feel a lot of ATs might get a little frustrated about some of the encounters if they try soloing.

So in conclusion, a rather solid arc that could become even better with a little more cohesiveness in the narrative and maybe some tweaks to the encounters and custom foes.

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I guess now I post my arc for judgement:

Arc Name: Mission: Muffet
Arc ID: 15390
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: (@)LLamaBoy
Difficulty Level: Should be soloable by essentially everyone on Heroic, could be more challenging in a team or with a higher difficulty.
Synopsis: A short adventure of betrayal, loyalty and danger. Starts with an unexpected recruit to the Malta Operative.
Estimated Time to Play: Around 30-60 minutes depending on personal clearing preference and reading speed.
Link to More Details or Feedback: Discussion thread

Be honest, thanks

Arc Name: Mission: Muffet
Arc ID: 15390
Faction: Heroic
Creator Global/Forum Name: (@)LLamaBoy
Difficulty Level: Should be soloable by essentially everyone on Heroic, could be more challenging in a team or with a higher difficulty.
Synopsis: A short adventure of betrayal, loyalty and danger. Starts with an unexpected recruit to the Malta Operative.
Estimated Time to Play: Around 30-60 minutes depending on personal clearing preference and reading speed.
Link to More Details or Feedback: Discussion thread

Arc Name: Forged By the Heart
Arc ID: 3980 (On Test)
Faction: Heroic (although, altruistic villains may enjoy it too)
Creator Global/Forum Name: LLamaBoy
Difficulty Level: Standard
Synopsis: You are asked to find a girl that nobody seems to know.
Estimated Time to Play: 45-90 minutes, depending on indivdual stealthiness and willingness to clear
Link to More Details or Feedback: Linky

Other notes: Design with the narrative in mind, easily soloable, but should be fun for groups as well.

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Can an arc be both HoF and Devs Choice?

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I don't see why it can't be. If anything, a Dev's Choice award might even make an arc more likely to be entered into the Hall of Fame, since that would give it more exposure.

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For those so (un)inspired.....is there a way to use enemy groups created by other players in your own arc, is there a way to stop others from doing this if it is possible, is there going to be a "customer review" system so people can explain their ratings of certain missions on the COH website or in-game?

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For the first two, I think it's been said that custom enemies/groups will be saved to the hard drive, like all other arc data, so if you wish to share a group with someone else, you can simply send them the appropriate files. This would prevent others from easily ripping off your creations as well, as they wouldn't have immediate access to the data.

As for reviews, I'm not sure if I remember correctly, but I believe I read that after you play an arc, you then have the option to send a message to the creator with your comments and suggestions.
Also, it wouldn't surprise me if another forum category is created to discuss aspects of the Architect or particular arcs, so that may be another place to post a review.

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Maybe give the player an incentive for rating an arc they played all the way through? If you rate an arc without playing it, you get nothing; if you rate it after completing some missions, you get a number of architect tickets per mission completed (say, 2 tickets if you completed only the first mission, 10 if you completed all five); that way, someone would have an incentive to actually *play* the mission rather than blind-rating, at least giving it a honest shot before deciding it's horrible. It won't prevent someone from rate-griefing if that's truly what they want to do, but I don't think there's anything that can be done to prevent that. Of course such an incentive should apply only once per arc.

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I think this sounds like the start of a pretty good idea.

The promise of a few extra tickets to complete an arc could well motivate a lot more players to continue, even if the introductory content isn't completely to their liking. As someone else said, certain stories may take some time to build up steam, so bonus tickets can be a proverbial carrot-on-a-stick for them.

Not sure if this would require much rebalancing in terms of current ticket rewards from regular mission/arc completion though.

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Per Pohsyb,
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You can put pre-existing critters into custom villain groups or make a custom character, but we will not have editing of pre-existing critters (at least for first release).


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Ah, right. I must have forgotten or missed that post. Thanks for pointing it out.

*edits post to nullify those queries*

I've skimmed through the thread and noticed a few good questions that I'd like to repeat, along with some of my own:

First a few on the Group/Critter Creator:
<ul type="square">[*] I think the answer to this is no, but here goes: Considering we use the costume creator to make our custom enemies, does this mean non-humanoid enemies - such as the Radio, Arachnos Tarantulas or the Eye of the Leviathan - are impossible? Furthermore, are limited to the standard character sizes, or can we make enemies much taller or shorter (think Nemesis or Baby New Year)?[*] *Answered* As a kind of continuation of the previous: Are we able to import existing enemy types into our custom groups? I think I read that this is possible, just looking for a final word.[*] *Answered*Conversely, will we be able to add out own custom enemies to existing groups? E.g. I want to add a "Technician" lieutenant to the Freakshow group that can heal them. Is this possible?[*] Are enemy teleportation/transformations possible for custom foes? Examples include Fifth/Council soldiers and PPD Awakened, which transform at certain points during a battle, and Dr. Aeon and Anti-Matter who teleport out when they are close to defeat.[*] As far as varation in appearance, what are our options? For example, Fifth Ubermenschen vary a great deal in height, and certain groups such as Knives of Artemis and Carnies have a lot of different costume or hair styles amongst the same minion types. Can we also create mutiple appearances, or possibly even randomise within a set of options?[*] Will there be (unlockable or otherwise) costume pieces that aren't available to player characters, such as backpack pieces, different headgear or faction logos?[/list]
And some more mission-specific queries:
<ul type="square">[*] What percentage of maps would be estimated to be available to players before purchasing unlockables?[*] Do we have to place each spawn separately, or are there options to fill a map indiscriminantly and then fine tune if we wish?[*] Since all the missions are accessed through the AE holographic system, does that mean we can't have delivery-type missions to other NPCs in the game world?[*] Are we able to format the text of mission briefings etc. with colour, for highlighting mission objectives or important information?[/list]Phew, that's about it. Thanks for reading and great work!

A massively helpful guide. I've been away from the game for a while and I found all this new info about the VEATs a little overwhelming.
You've managed to present it concisely and professionally, and now I've decided I'll make a Crab Spider as soon as I can!

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Charles:

Arrived somewhat safely, looking for you.

Mary

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Eh? This some kind of I11 hint?

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I guess so... It was in the previous scoop too. No idea what it can mean.

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One point I have yet to see mention is who the blonde undercover chick was that worked with Manticore. I'm thinking Swan, based off the blonde hair and her links with Manticore in our reality.

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Cisne is Spanish for Swan.

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That, plus the fact that the girl mentioned in Manticore's side article as his girlfriend, Lena Elliot, is Swan's real name.