Leese

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And farmers might be inclined to add SFMA, because they think it might make thier farm less likely to be deleted.

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Ooh... that would be most irritating. But you are likely correct.

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I doubt that a 4-letter acronym is going to fool the GMs, and any farm that uses this acronym is going to get many complaints from people who are angry because they searched for SFMA precisely because they wanted to avoid farms.

Have you tried changing the map? The only spawning problems I've encountered have been with bad spawn points on certain maps.

The guys on the US forums have come up with this acronym to tag mission arcs where story is important. Put it in your arc descriptions, and story lovers will be able to find your arcs more easily.

I think it's a good idea.

A new request!

Through Rose-Tinted Glasses - ID 101681
Villainous, 40-54
Elspeth Wallace is a senile old lady. Elspeth Wallace knows many secrets. Elspeth Wallace thinks you're Manticore... wait, what? This could be weird... but profitable. (2 Signature AV/EBs)

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Arc #53951, "A Sleeping Star"
tl;dr: 5 stars.

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Thanks a LOT for this review. I really appreciate it, and I'm thrilled you enjoyed it.

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Anyway, since the Nictus and Council are involved, Leese seeks help from Sunstorm, who claims the crystal is from something similar to a Shadow Cyst that normal Kheldians use (canon nitpick: I'm not sure if this is entirely accurate, but Kheldian lore is very loose...).

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Indeed. I couldn't find any information about HOW Kheldians travel through space, so I just rigged up an explanation similar to how the Nictus do it.

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Sunstorm spawns near the entrance as an ally, and cons as an Arch-Villain, giving him attacks that deal upwards of 1000 damage (highest I saw was 1800). Needless to say, clearing my way to the objectives was not a challenge.

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I'd love to be able to tone down Sunstorm, actually, but won't be able to until Kheldian powersets become available in the critter creator. (also, I miss his yellow costume)
Though I do worry that Arakhn will be much harder if Sunstorm was a Boss or capped to an EB instead of an AV.

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You have to escort her out on a somewhat lengthy map.

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I'd pick a smaller map, but I needed a linear map with not very complicated rooms. This Large map was the only one that really fit the bill.

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The next obstacle is... Arakhn. Note, the navbar at this point states that defeating enemies is strictly optional, though this might be troublesome as Arakhn stopped me with an immobilize followed by a stun as I tried to run past.

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Every time I tested, my blasters/PB etc were able to get past Arakhn without being mezzed, but then I knew what was coming. I'd be interested to hear how other players fare here. I might try to finagle the spawns so she appears in a bigger room, but it's hard to make that work consistently.

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I sincerely recommend this arc to everyone.

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Damnit, now I need to go buy some bigger hats. Thank you once again.

Already posted this on the US forums, but I think it should go here too. Testing this required two PCs. I'll label them with (1) and (2)

Operating System (Vista, XP, OS X version): Vista(1) and XP (2)
User Client (Mac, PC, Linux): PC (both)
Server: Virtue (1) and Defiant (2)
Zone: Atlas Park (1) and Rikti War Zone (2)
Character name: Blue Vaniah (1) Leese (2)
Time: about 16:30 PDT, (1) 00:30 GMT (2)
Location: AE building (both)
Bug Description: International Feedback Does Not Work.
Feedback sent from a US account to a US account works, and EU to EU works. But US to EU and vice versa do NOT work. There is no error message. The comment is simply not delivered.

Tested with the following arcs on the EU side. Sent comments from my US account. Their creators did not recieve comments - 2022, 53951, 1526, 32582
Tested with the following arcs on the US side. Sent comments from my EU account. Their creators did not recieve comments - 1629, 76267

I'd guess that an awful lot of feedback is just falling into a black hole.

This is the part where I jump at the chance.

"The Sleeping Star"
ID - 53951

1) Yep, max is 3.

2) I believe this is a bug.

I waited until a Mothership raid was over, and then started asking on broadcast.

Ah, excellent. I was trying to figure this out but missed putting the cc at he start of the emote name.

These emotes are excellent.

Contact support. NCSoft is not out to rob you. If you've been charged extra due to a fault with their site, I'm confident they will refund you.

According to /cmdlist

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/cc_e Uses an emote to change costumes.
/cc_emote Uses an emote to change costumes.

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But I can't figure out the correct syntax.

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We should set up a thread of things we would (realistically) add to MA to make the missions different and original.

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How about some of the things that are in game at the moment, like leading hostages to glowies or having two enemy groups fighting without damaging each other.

That last one is my personal bugbear, because it's been the standard mob fighting behaviour for as long as I've been playing.

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I can't WAIT until this is implemented. So many times I've wanted to see two enemy groups fighting, but they always kill each other before I even see them.

So I've been trying to write an MA arc about the Council and the 5th, and the internal politics of these two groups is... a bit hard to get straight sometimes. These are my impressions of the current situation... are they right?

WARNING - POST CONTAINS SPOILERS for many arcs, including Ouroboros, Kheldian and Cimeroran arcs!



Requiem - Double agent, active in both the Council and the 5th Column. Using both of them to further the Nictus' agenda.
His loyalties lie first with the Nictus, then with the 5th, then with the Centre.

Nosferatu - First 5th member to switch to Council, probably not interested in going back. Curious about becoming a Nictus.
His loyalties lie first with the Centre, then with the Nictus, then with the 5th Column.

Vandal - Double Agent, like Requiem. Probably doesn't care for Nictus, they probably can't take robots as hosts.
Loyalties lie first with the 5th Column, second with the Centre.

Maestro - Same as Vandal.

Burkholder - 'Loyal' to the Centre, for now, but I get the feeling he'd switch back to the 5th if he thought it was worth it. His dialogue makes him out to be an opportunistic weasel.

Arakhn - Nictus using the Council to further the Nictus agenda. Loyal to the Nictus first, then the Centre.

Generic Council troops - Are loyal to their commanders first, then the Centre. Most are unaware of what Nictus really are.

Generic 5th Column troops - Loyal to their commanders only. Probably hate all Council and Nictus.


So, did I get it right? There are a few minor holes (who are the 5th Vampires loyal to? They've split with Nosferatu) but I think that's right.

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I've just briefly logged in to collect tickets/put auctions up etc, and I checked on the most recent version of my arc, Apocalypse Cow to see how it was doing. I didn't have any tickets to collect, which means no on one has completed even 1 mission of it from 2am this morning (when I was shamefully last on) but there's a single 1 star rating for it now.

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You only get tickets when people rate your arcs, not when they complete missions in your arc.

3 stars = 15 tickets
4 stars = 20 tickets
5 stars = 25 tickets

... and I'm pretty sure I rated Apocalypse Cow when I played it, and not a 1 star rating. Did you unpublish?

I've not seen any really memorable souveniers from the MA yet (apart from my own, plug plug :P ) but my favorite from the actual game would be "A letter from Ploughkeepsie" from the "High Roller's Last Gamble" arc. But that's always been one of my favorite arcs.

Anti-matter's not present. Hopefully the devs will add him soon.

And I agree with MA, "play fighting" mobs should DEFINITELY be an option.

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Yeah, I can see the connection to mission objectives... Was a load of hostages to free, and I was the one freeing them all, but the other guy killed everything around them.

So me running in, stealing the mission objective from him, got the end-mission bonus. Makes sense, just like you get more tickets soloing also makes sense! Yeah, let's make a MMO game that rewards egoistic behaviour and soloing.

Sigh!

(And yeah, know of the hotfix, but still ty for telling me)

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Nope.

Quoting the Paragonwiki page linked earlier...

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There is a rather large Ticket Bonus for completing the mission (in place of the Influence bonus for mission completes) which is equivalent to the number of tickets earned during the mission after multipliers. According to Synapse, the later missions in an arc offer an increasing bonus multiplier:

* Mission 1: x1.0
* Mission 2: x1.05
* Mission 3: x1.1
* Mission 4: x1.15
* Mission 5: x1.2

The more you do in the mission, the larger the bonus. If the mission was just one click, then you'll get no or maybe just one Ticket. If it was a huge kill-all with lots of bosses, the mission complete Ticket bonus is rather large.

So the biggest ticket drops would come from finishing the final mission of a 5 mission arc in which you defeated everything

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"equivalent to the number of tickets earned during the mission after multipliers" means that the tickets recieved by a player at the end corresponds to how many they got during a mission. In a regular mission luck would mean one player could get ten salvage drops and another player gets none. It's the same with tickets

PLayer one gets 100 tickets during a mission and gets a 100 ticket bonus.
Player two gets 66 tickets during a mission and gets a 66 ticket bonus.
Player three gets 50 tickets during a mission and gets a 50 ticket bonus.

You don't get tickets or ticket bonuses for completing objectives at all, only for defeating enemies, in exactly the same way you get enhancements/salvage/recipes in regular missions. So there's no need to compete to steal objectives at all.

Signed in BLOOD! Would make one of my arcs much better.

You can change the rating, but you need to start playing the arc again to do so.

Personally, I'd say if you're not sure what you should rate an arc, you probably shouldn't rate. Overrating a bad arc or underrating a good arc does nobody any favours.

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I vote for a rename for i14, its not mission architect at all, its Task Force Architect.

In a mission you can invite new members, you cant in MA missions.

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Have you tried?
This is wrong, but I made this assumption too at first so it's OK IMO :P

Although MA missions say they're in Task Force mode, you CAN invite people after a MA arc begins.

I am also intruiged, looking forward to this.

Post removed.

I did some research into arcs that already star Nosferatu, and realised I was remembering some things wrongly - mainly that while he might not agree with what Requiem and Arakhn do sometimes, he is completely loyal to the Center and would not be seen dead with any remaining 5th Column loyalists.

I'll replace him with an original EB.

One of the arcs I'm working on ATM requires that I have Nosferatu as a boss. There's not really anyone else in the Council who'd be doing what he's doing.

The thing is, Nosferatu is tough, even as an EB - in testing he was the only part of the arc that was a stiff challenge to my MA/SR, and he has a reputation for being very difficult. So I need to do things to make him soloable... BUT for story reasons I can't add in an Ally to fight alongside the player.

So I thought up a few possibilities. What do you guys think would be best?

1) Allied ambushes. Some squads of Peacebringers, probably, coming in to help you. Appropriate for the mission, but after Nosferatu is defeated they wouldn't follow the player when logically they should (especially since another EB spawns guarding the exit)

2) Rewrite the story and bring in an ally spawn. I'd rather not, but it could be done.

3) Nosferatu runs at 75% HP - this won't fail the mission if he escapes.. Taking down 25% of his HP is much easier. He can't afford to be caught doing what he's doing, and an escort spawn with the main mission objective appears in the path he'll run down, which will hopefully distract the player and let him escape. There will still be a final fight, as that other EB guarding the exit will still be there. Defeat Nosferatu is not a vital objective in the story and if it were possible I'd make him optional, but a required objective (the escort) needs to trigger off him.

4) Recreate Nosferatu as a custom character. I have my doubts about how close to the original I'd be able to get him though.

5) Leave it as it is and say "you may want to bring a team!"

What do you think?

Yup, IMO that's the best possible thing they could do at this point. Second best would be moving back to player names and e-mails.