Ledain

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Eventually people will start recognizing the build up animation and give it the respect it deserves (run like hell for 10 seconds).

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LOL! Quite right!

Well, sure... If I just wanted to make her easier, I could turn down her settings. She's supposed to be difficult. I'd even like to set her EM to extreme, but before that I'd have to know if a team could take her down with the hard setting.

I'm designing a MArc that's intended to be taken as a Task Force. This Task Force features a number of various Arch Villains, all based off characters in an actual story we have worked out through role-play.

One of these AVs is an Energy Melee/Electric Armor brute set to Hard/Extreme, who is meant to be one of the strongest among these AVs. While me and my partner were testing this arc for dialogue and storyline, we happened to run into this AV. She proceeded to destroy each of his Bots in one punch, and then took him down in two. As for me, A DB/WP Brute of level 32, I managed to survive about 4 or 5 hits.

Now, keep in mind that this arc is meant as a Task Force. These Arch-Villains are not MEANT to be soloed, or even duoed, at their AV level. If I knew enough willing souls to come and test it with me, I could see for myself. Yet, such is not the case, and so my question is asked.

Is Energy Melee just too powerful to be used at the Arch-Villain level? Or can such a monster be defeated easily enough by an organized team who know what they're doing?

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One further question: when you say you can pull out members of existing villain groups into a custom group, how does one do that? If there's a guide you have that I could read, I'd much appreciate it.

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When you create a custom group, your list of custom characters will show up on the left side. At the top of that, there's two tabs: Custom, and Standard. Click the Standard tab, and your dropdown list of your custom groups will switch to currently existing enemies.

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I'm editing a mission, and want to add a custom character from my list of custom groups. However, the custom group I created most recently doesn't appear in any of the Custom choosers. What could be causing that?

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It's a bug. Happens to me now and then, whenever I create a custom group. I either switch to the standard dropdown box and flip through it, then flip back to the custom group; or I'll save and exit, flip through my custom groups, and make sure it's there and saved.

Hope that helps.

If you don't mind having three copies of the same AV in the same group of enemies, and the AV is a custom critter? Then the answer is yes.

If you're dead set on having only the one AV, then the answer's no. I'm sure this will change in future updates, though.

Try adding a Boss objective, and check the DE group for the Monsters. A lot of options are only available when set as a Boss.

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That is undougtedly the tact I will take while waiting for them to fix this problem, however really a bit of a rip. Rularuu the trillion foot tall badass world-constuming monster is just too cool a fight for words. As just another custom character model, he's, well, just another custom character.

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...you could always make him look like Rick Astley.

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Ok, the following I've encountered in Architect mode:

I can place a glowie in the "Front" of a mission, a Boss in the "Middle" and a Boss at the "Back"

I tested it 3 times.

test 1: The glowie isn't appearing in the mission.
Test 2 and 3 work fine.

I publish and the following has occured:

The glowie in the "Front" is now about 2/3 of the way or more through the mission (I actually found it past the boss I set to "Back" of mission) and the boss set in this mission as middle is in the front...

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Are you using a map that can accomodate the correct details in proper locations? Quite a few maps I've seen won't allow for details in the front of the mission.

The biggest bug along these lines that I've run into was at the i14 live date. I copied my arc as I had designed it on Test, added it to Live, and apparently the file size was around 5k larger than it was on test.

I don't think it's anything you're doing wrong. I've set my setting as high as Ruthless, hoping to start seeing Bosses in any of the missions, and to no avail. I assume MA missions have awkward spawn settings in order to reduce the likeliness of farming. (Like that's stopped it if it is...)

You could set up random generic bosses around the mission as optional objectives, with their accompanying group set to hard.

The problem with the Ally AI is that they will often walk up to the enemy to a certain distance, but stand just outside their own attack range. Ever tried to hit an enemy when you were too far away? Yeah, that's basically what he's doing. I have the same problem with one of my own arcs.

Try setting it to Ranged, anyways. I haven't messed with it much, but it seems to only give the AI a preference to ranged attacks over melee ones. Since DB doesn't really have any ranged attacks, that's not really a concern. But, the way the ally moves (or doesn't move, in regard to the Ranged setting) might help it to attack more by relying on the enemies. Kind of like luring the fly into the trap.

As for the text firing off as soon as you enter? That's because the objective is completed as soon as you enter, because there are no longer any enemies for you to defeat to complete it. If it's a big issue, I'd suggest just leaving the ally with an easy mob.

Hope this helps you at least a little. I should have probably messed with the Ranged AI setting a little more before suggesting it, but if you're in a pickle, it can't hurt to try something new, right?

Oh, wow... that is win.

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If the internet has taught me anything, it's that anonymity is more likely to cause some people to act like jerks than the other way around.

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Agreed.

A friend of mine attempted to create a "Hardest" mission. When people started finishing it, he came up with ways to introduce even more unlikely-to-complete scenarios.

45352 - Hardest Level

Probably not the type of "gauntlet" you were implying, but eh. If you try it out? Good luck.

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Whoever gives their minions Spines as a powerset needs to test more. I got hit for 200 by a spines/(Stalker) minion. I have 726 hitpoints as a lvl 20 Brute, and 20% lethal resist.

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Spines/Ninjutsu, perhaps? The Hide power for the MA Ninjutsu set is bugged, and gives the enemy a +2000% damage increase.

But yeah, even if the creator had no idea, they could've tried testing it themselves before publishing.

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That's what I was getting at with the 3rd bullet in the OP.

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Hm. Strange, I must've missed the note. At least I know I'm not crazy, and the only one who's noticed that glitch.

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If certain badges are more important to you than playing MA that's certainly your choice. But I wouldn't expect them to change it from how it was intended just to accommodate you.

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Playing a support character, especially at level 50, isn't all too exciting. The heal badges help to give 'em a goal to work towards.

But if that's not doable in Architect, then there's little reason to play a support character for it when you could play something more interesting. Personally, I've been doing MArcs, even heroic ones, solely on my Brute. Most people who have played a -true- support (IE, not just a "Healer") all the way to 50 would probably agree.

But, if it's not going to happen, then there's no point in holding our breath.

LOL! Those ninja quotes are great. Clearly not good with the English language.

I've seen a lot of bad spelling and grammar so far, but nothing quite to that extreme.

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I thought seriously about making such an offer to a few people, but then realized it would end up like it always does with me, taking the task and never finding the time to do it.

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Same for me. Glad someone else volunteered for the task, though I wouldn't mind lending a hand whenever I'm able.

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That's actually one of the easier ones, as the god was in the pantheon of a half a dozen different language speaking areas and has lots of names. Thunor, Donar, Tor...also it's somewhat Germanic, so non-functional umlauts can make it look OK, too (Thör).

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True. The issue is, making sure it's a name most people are going to recognize. Especially when an arc's designed more for the gimmick than the powerful story.

Here's a whole board. You could also try this site.

I can empathize. I had to be a little clever in my Norse Gods arc, because Thor is also the name of a Marvel character.

Have you considered trying names like Fairechild, Farechild, or Fairchyld?

I hope they come back soon. I could sure use them for some of my missions.

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There's also Forest 3, which has an island off to one side. And no forest ironically.

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I think you mean Forest 2.

Allies set to Melee with melee power sets will often try to attack enemies from outside their melee range. I'm not sure if this was an issue before i14 or not, but if it was, I've never noticed. With all the arcs that include allies with melee attacks, it's definitely a more apparent bug now.