Memphis_Bill

Mission Architect Tutorial
100 series - basics
103 - Adding a second mission (and beyond)


The Mission Architect file you've been saving is a .storyarc file. As the name implies, it doesn't have to be a single mission - and I'm willing to bet, more often than not, it won't be. An arc, of course, consists of two or more missions. You've likely run these either as mission arcs or strike forces, task forces, or trials.

Any arc you create can have from one to five missions in it (at time of I14 Open Beta. The restrictions may be changed later through various awards or at the whim of the developers.) This tutorial will expand the "World Domination 101" mission into a two mission arc.

As always, open the most recent local copy of the file on your machine (Tutorial 2) in the Mission Architect. Click on Save As... and save it as Tutorial 3. This is the copy we'll work with.

Creating a second mission

Adding another mission to your arc is very simple. Select Tutorial 3 and hit "Edit," then look at the editor window. If you look to the right of your mission "books you'll see a button that says "Add mission." Click that.

You will now have a new, blank mission called "Mission 2 (1-54)" ready for editing. These titles (Mission 1, Mission 2) cannot be changed, but they have no impact on how anyone else sees your missions. The 1-54, as you might have guessed, is the level range. This will be determined by the critters in your mission - it can change from mission to mission. We'll get into that in a later tutorial. For now, let's make a second, fast mission. Type in or select the following:

Enemy Group - 5th Column (1-54). Again, we're ignoring custom groups.
Map type - Again, we want something small, but we'll pick something a bit bigger this time. Pick Office Abandoned - City of Villains Set.
Map Length: Small
Map: Office Abandoned - City of Villains - 8. This is a two story map.

Skip to Write Text, for now. If you want to play with the settings dealt with in 102, come back to do it. We want to get you a second, working mission. Under Write Text:

Mission Introduction Dialog - We've found more 5th Column for you to clean out. They're in a warehouse down the way. Go get 'em!
Mission Send Off Dialog: Show those goons who's boss!
Compass Active Text: Clear out the 5th!
Still Busy Dialog: Are they gone yet?
Return Success dialog: Great job, $name, you really showed them!

(We'll get into the dollar strings later.) Now click on either "Mission 2 Details" or the "2" page on Mission 2.

[ QUOTE ]

Oh, didn't I mention that? Yes, the "1" and "2" in the mission books actually have a purpose. You don't have to arrow through each mission! If you need to fix an objective in Mission 4 of an arc, you can just click on "Page 2" of your "Mission 4" book, and it'll jump right there!


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The first mission was a defeat all. Let's pick a different one - Fight a Boss, under Basic Mission Goals. We'll go over each basic goal in the next lesson. Right now, just fill in the blanks.

Boss name: Put in Bob. Because that smiling guy is just creepy.
Boss Enemy Group: 5th column (1-54)

Optional settings will be explained in the next tutorial.

Click the checkmark to save your mission.

Testing your mission

Just click Save and Test, right? Well, hold on a minute.

Yes, our first mission was short, and wouldn't be hard to play through to get to your second mission. Before finally publishing an arc, you'll probably want to do just that - play the whole thing through. Right now, though, we just want to see mission 2. How do we do that?

We rearrange the books up top.

The books aren't just for show and quick navigation. If you've just finished Mission 5 of an arc and JUST want to see that, you don't want to play through the first four missions. So, click on Mission 2, hold down the mouse... and drag it in front of Mission 1. The cursor will indicate it's dragging the mission by turning into a hand clenching a bunch of pieces of paper. Anywhere on the "ribbon" in front of the first mission will do.

Now, click Save and Test. Go wipe that smile off Bob's face!

Remember to drag them back into order when you come back, then re-save the storyarc.

Deleting a mission

All right. So you want to delete a mission. Maybe it's so messed up a little tweak won't help. Maybe you accidentally clicked "Add mission" twice instead of once and now have a blank mission. So how do you do it?

For the purposes of the tutorial, click "Add Mission" again. You should now have "Mission 3" available.

Looking at the mission "books" up top, you should see a little red dot next to them. Click that, and it will delete that mission. Take a look at the mission first - click on the "1" on the book to see the first page, just to make sure you're deleting the right one. In this case, it will still be "Mission 3." It will disappear from your list.

I personally recommend saving your arc before you delete a mission, JUST in case. (Call it something like "Delete M3") - we're not going to do this for this tutorial, but when you really get into editing, just assume you WILL make this mistake at some point. This little precaution (if you don't use the various CVS systems suggested in open beta for versioning and archiving) will save you grief and headaches.

Mission Architect Tutorial
100 series - Basics
102 - Basic Story Setting Options



If you haven't done the basic mission creation tutorial guide, you may want to, as I will be using that mission as a basis for this, and possibly future, guides.

All right. We have our basic World Domination (or Saving Kittens) arc. One simple mission. Open this mission up from "My local missions."

We skipped multiple sections when we did the walkthrough. Let's go back and look at the first page, Mission Settings. Specifically, we're going to look at optional sections.

Start by going up to the second icon at the top and pick "Save as." Give it a name such as "Tutorial 2." This will preserve your original so you can go back. When editing, it's a good idea to save prior versions before doing anything - don't rely on the autosave button. If you save, you know where you're at.

Choose Mission Settings options

We're not going into custom groups yet - one step at a time. Under Choose Mission Settings, you will see two optional sections:
<ul type="square">[*]Mission Parameters[*]Mission complete Clue[/list]
We'll look at these individually.

Mission Parameters

Click on Mission Parameters. If you click on the blue square with the quesiton mark, you'll get a simple explanation of the two options in here.
<ul type="square">[*]Mission Pacing

Mission pacing refers to how the levels of the enemies change through the map spawns. You have four options.

• Flat - All enemies stay roughly the same level.
• Back loaded - Enemies will start off lower level in the beginning and jump up higher near the end.
• Staggered - Personal favourite. Enemy levels can vary throughout the mission.
• Ramp up - Similar to back loaded, but with a steady progression up in level or difficulty.

The default setting is "Flat."
[*]Time to Complete

If you want the mission to have a time limit (the default is no limit,) this is where you select it. You can't just type in a time, however. You must pick from a list, ranging from 5 minutes to 2 hours.
Your choices are 5, 10, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 minutes and 2 hours.

Please, if you use this option, be realistic (unless, like Tina Mcintyre's infamous mission, you want the chance of failure to be high.) Also, if you use this option, pay attention to the next section, "Additional Text."

Since this is a tutorial on a very small map, set your time to complete to 5 minutes. [/list]
Mission Complete Clue.

This is very simple - you have two fields, one of which lets you give a title to your clue ("An interesting find") and a description.


Write text: Additional Text

This section has multiple options. We'll be filling in everything here.
<ul type="square">[*]Mission Title
When you go to talk to your contact, often you'll see a title and subtitle - Levantra, for instance in the Rikti War Zone has an example of this with "Introduction to Vanguard, Part 1." This is similar to the "Introduction to Vanguard" at the top.

Fill in "Misison Creation Tutorial."
[*]Mission Subtitle

This is where you'd put in Part 1, Mission 1, Beginning, finale - whatever you want to call your chapters.

Fill in "Misison 1." Yes, it's boring. But you only have one mission.
[*]Mission accept text

This is the "Accept" that you click at the bottom to take the mission. By default, it is filled in with "Accept."

Fill in "Now see what you've done!"
[*]Mission entry popup

This is the window you see come up in many missions - "This office is nice. It won't be nice when you're through with it, but it's nice now," for instance. It's a little opening flavor bit.

Type in "Times must be tough. They seem to have gotten a storage unit instead of a warehouse."
[*]Mission Success Popup

This pops up if you've successfully completed a mission. You don't see these very often, actually, but if there's some action you want to imply ("Soldiers come up and whisk your hostage away," for instance,) that's what you put here.

Type in "Well, that was easy."
[*]Mission Fail Popup

This is the same as the Success popup - but obviously only comes up if you fail. If the mission is able to BE failed (timed, prevent X from being destroyed,) you may consider using this. ("You emerge from the rubble. Time to face the music.")

Since we have a five minute timed mission, go ahead and put in "You wake up... oops, bad time for a nap."
[*]Return Fail Dialog

This is what the contact tells you if you failed the mission. This is a bit more important, in my opinion, if you have a failable mission. You can use it to segue into the next mission, or give a story ending ("Well, you failed, and it looks like they now have a biological weapon. We'll have to hope they don't use it.")

Type in "What were you doing, sleeping? It's so hard to get good help these days." [/list]Running the mission

Save the mission again. We won't publish, since this is just for your own use.

When you look in the mission browser, you should have two, possibly three, World Domination 101 missions. If you look closely, you'll see a file name listed under each. One will be "Autosave," possibly. The others will be Tutorial 1 and Tutorial 2. We just finished Tutorial 2, so that's what we want to run.

Start the mission, talk to your contact, enter the mission...

Then go get some coffee or something. You should have a 5 minute timer to let run down. This will let you see the "failed" dialogs and contact response. After you do, run it again and play it, beating those wuss 5th Column troops. You should see an end of mission dialog box, and different dialog from your contact.

Creating your first mission in the Mission Architect.

This tutorial will walk you through creating a very basic mission in the Mission Architect, the central feature of Issue 14. If you don't know where the Mission Architect is located, it exists in many zones, with an "AE" icon. Go to one of these locations and do the introduction, which will show you around the place.

This tutorial will not go into detail as to what everything is. The help system, and further guides, will go into much greater detail. This tutorial is here solely to "get your feet wet" and get your first mission created. This will take you step by step through creating a mission with a (very) small map and a bunch of bad guys to defeat.

When you're finished, go to one of the Mission Architect computers and click on it. You will see a list of published arcs. Don't worry about those for now. Click on the button in the upper right that says "Create a new story." A window will come up, filling your screen. This is the mission creation window.

Creating the arc

Story Title

This is what your story will appear as in the browser. This is a text field. It does get checked by the censor list, as does everything. For our first mission, we'll keep it simple. In programming courses, the first program is often called "Hello world."

That's boring.

Let's call ours "World Domination 101." (OK, if you're feeling heroic, something like "Saving kittens 101.")

Story Description

"Story Description" gives a small blurb about what the story's about. Type in "Tutorial mission" and leave it at that.

Story Contact

Here, you can put in your contact name, if you want (we'll use "Bob.")
Beneath that is Contact Type. This is where you pick from a long list of NPCs - including a custom one you can create. We're not creating one now (though it's easy.) Leave it at "Default."

Now lets create the mission itself.

On the bottom of the screen, you'll see an arrow pointing right that says "Mission 1 settings." Use ether one.

You should be on a page starting with "Choose mission settings."

The Choose mission settings page

There are two tabs here, Standard and Custom. Custom is where you would create your own enemy (or ally) groups. We're ignoring that one for now - play with it later.

Under Standard, you'll have a few buttons. The first is "Enemy group." This is a dropdown list. Since I dont' know what level anyone reading this would be, we're going to pick a group that anyone can play with.

If you click on the word "None," you'll see the (long) list. All of them have the name and level ranges of those enemy groups. We'll use the very first one there - 5th Column (1-54.) Click that.

Next section - Map Type.

Click on "None." You'll see a list of map sets. Each of these sets has multiple maps inside of it. WE're going to go down a bit and use "Warehosue Abandoned - City of Heroes set." Once this is selected, you'll see a new option, "Map length." You have four options - Tiny, Small, Medium, and Large.

Since this is supposed to be fast, we'll pick Tiny.

A new section will open up that says "Map." You can leave this at random... but what fun is that?

This selection only has two maps - Map 0 and Map 1 - as well as the Random option. Other map sets can have very lengthy selections. If you scroll through the maps, you'll see a floorplan represented on the right.

We'll pick the most basic map there is - Map 0. You should see a hall and a room. This will also give you information, much like the base editor, on how much is allowed (X many ambushes, items, etc.) Make sure it meets your needs - for this tutorial, it does.

Again, there are many optional settings. We are ignoring them for the purpose of this tutorial.

Next section - Write Text

This is not optional. In fact, if you click on "Show Errors" in the upper left, it's showing you that none of this has been filled in.

Mission Introduction Dialog - This is what the contact tells you when you talk to them. Type in "Hi there. I see you're learning to use the mission architect. Glad I could help!" (Yes, it's lame, but you'll see where it goes.)

Mission Send Off Dialog is what you see after accepting the mission. For this mission, just type in "Have fun storming the Castle!"

Compass Active Task Text - shows up in your nav window. Here, just type "Beat stuff up."

Still Busy Dialog - is what you see if you talk to the contact without finishing the mission. Just type in "Shoo."

Return Success Dialog - is what the contact tells you when you see them at the end of the mission. Type in "Thanks, you wonderful being you!"

Click "Mission 1 details" on the bottom right to proceed.

Mission Details

There are two sections here - basic and advanced mission goals. Given this is a basic tutorial, we're just going to touch on Basic Mission Goals.

We want to beat stuff up. Pick Defeat All Enemies. You'll have two choices - Defeat:
... everything on the map (literally defeat all)
... everything in the last room.

Either will work for this mission.

Look to the upper right. If you see "No errors," you should be ready.

Click on Save and Test in the lower right. In the dialog that comes up, pick Save and Test again. It will ask for a file name - call it "Tutorial 1" or something.

Click OK, and select "Accept" in the dialog box.

Now what?

Now, if you're in the main floor of the AE building (with the energy cascade,) you'll see some holograms. By default, they're a generic male form (like in the costume creator.) Had you picked a contact (say, Ms. Liberty,) it would appear like that character. Select "Ask about available missions."

You'll see some of the dialog you wrote. ("Hi, so you're learning to use the mission architect...") Click accept, and it'll tell you to have fun storming the Castle. Click "Leave," and go to the energy fountain int he middle. Like a portal, it'll take you to the map.

Now go beat stuff up!

Inside the mission.

You'll note, up top, that you automatically have an "Exit" button as well as "Architect options." Don't get confused - when you actually do finish the mission, you'll get a "Mission Complete" dialog coming up. (If you were playing a published mission, you'd also get a dialog to rate the mission and send a comment.)

The mission we made should only take a moment to defeat - go finish beating things up, and come back. Hit Exit when finished.

Publishing a story

All right, so this is the rockinist mission ever, and you want to share it with the world! How do you do that?

Go back to the computers that you used to get into the MA to begin with. Along the top, click on "My creations." Look for "World Domination" (or "Saving kittens" or whatever you called it.) Click on it, and you'll see it expand.

Expanding will give you two things - more information (map size, enemies and the like,) and a series of buttons.
PUBLISH sends it to the Architect servers. It will take a little time to show up, usually a couple of minutes. This is the one we want.

Note that you can only have three published arcs out there. Yes, this is taking one up. You can have as many unpublished ones as you have space for on your computer.

Er, wait, I don't want that taking one up!

No problem. In the same section, you'll see "My published stories," "My unpublishes stories," "My characters" and "My enemy groups." Once it shows up in "My published stories" (again, it takes a bit as the story is reviewed," you'll get another button that says "Unpublish." Select that, and it will free up a slot.

Now that you've done it once, feel free to go back and explore your options. I hope this little walkthrough has shown you how quick and easy it is to create the basic framework which will let you expand and tell the stories you want.

Please read the patch notes that come up with I14 tomorrow.

(And really, with the single click buffs for pets now... it shouldn't take THAT long ot get ready.)

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Interestingly enough, as stated by several posters in this thread, that they haven't even experienced a Tanker Tuesday, nor for some, play Tankers, yet you argue to the relevancy of this request.

Plaques, statues, and 'souvenirs' have been made in-game by the developers based on a storyline, CoH canon, or simply just 'placing' the item there for aesthetics.

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The plaques about, for instance, the actions of Atlasare referring to in game canon. Regardless of server, it is a part of the global COH history, one shared by all on every server. By definition, every character started with that history to be shared, native, newcomer, alien to the world or plane, it's part of the history they are now part of.

Which leads to the following:
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How can a simple, innocuous plaque honoring a long standing community event be a threat to you? Why is it that you feel it is undeserving?

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For the same reason my starting a supergroup on Virtue has no effect on a player on Infinity. It is not a shared event, it is not part of the in-game history to be referred to. Player events on a single server, such as TT, are memorialized in other ways than this.

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Far more sinister people and events in real life have earned plaques and recognition for dastardly and evil things ("Lizzy Bornden House" in Massachusetts, for example)?

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And if it were possible to put such a marker in ONLY on champion, we wouldn't be having this argument.

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THis game is entertainment; in several years this game may be a fond memory for most of us, but, I cannot understand how a request for a piece of digital art in the game to recognize the efforts of the dynamic Tanker Tuesday participants and community for 5 years can foster such discontent.

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In which case you haven't been reading, or only picking through what you want to read.
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An article in the Scoop is indeed a writing that will be seen once; an 'object' such as a tank or a 'tanker' statue are a good idea, but they do NOT honor what the item is FOR.

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An article in the scoop is something that can be referred to multiple times, much like the aforementioned certificates. As is the website reference under the "community" section, part of my "overall" package. They would "honor" it just as much as an in-game plaque, without being somewhere that has not ever seen, and has no reference for, a non-game-world event - I hesitate to use the term "metagame." It is purely a player event, one seen consistently on one server only, which you wish to have shown on every server.

To go back to your "Lizzie Borden" comment, it's not marking just her house, but picking a house in every single state that looks somewhat like it to put a similar plaque on. Of course, in the real world, we can obviously limit it to JUST that one house. Making a change like this in the game, you cannot.

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A plaque with simple words could honor and identify a consistent event that has touched many in the game.

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And which many upon many times more would have no clue about.

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And as for comments of 'speaking for the masses', I am not speaking for you as forumites; I refer to those I have and continue to game with "In-Game", not just this exclusive band of texters. Nearly all of those I chat with in the game (which far outnumber the posters here) have stated they think its 'a good idea' (to summarize their statements).

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"Prove it." How many? How many can, without prompting, tell you what it's about? How many on other servers? Are "nearly all those I chat with in the game" your supergroup? Friends list? Are they just given a general idea without specifics? Is it verified it's individual accounts, that you haven't ended up, intentionally or not, re-asking the same people? Or perhaps you asked those gathered for one of these events, which would be a biased sample?

The statement is vague enough to be generally unprovable.

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We have asked for this; you have stated your piece. I respect that. Understand though, this is a simple request; we are not asking for plaque off the Mall in Washington D.C.; we are not asking for a national holiday. This is no different than honoring a community event that has engendered the finer qualities of the game.

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Yet you're asking for a replica of the Washington Monument to be put in every capital of every nation, because one cannot be made that exists on its own. It holds only a tiny piece of ground on its own, after all, what harm does irrelevance to the other nations have?

Again, the counterproposals put forward would not require an in-game permanence in servers - the majority of them - that have nothing to do with the event. How are these counterproposals so unworthy of consideration, that this step needs to be taken?

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Again, this is a little plaque in a remote corner of a zone in a video game; how does this harm you? This plaque can simply identify that those participating in this consistent, positive, and note-worthy event should encourage you to try something as dedicated and dynamic as this itself.

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And this can also be done by the counterproposals, yet this is not considered. Only this plaque seems to be worthy of consideration by those of you pushing it. I have not heard the counterproposals debated more than... not even half-heartedly, or examined. Counterproposals that would in some instances bring even greater visibility. And which would have the same effect as "encouraging you to try something (like) this yourself."

Of course, to that last point, AT-specific and powerset specific teams, known as Superteams typically, are created with no reference or relationship to Tanker Tuesday, so even that as an argument for the effect of the event falls flat. The idea is not unique. The only argument being held to it is that it is long running - something true of other player creations in game as well, as has been discussed in great detail so far.

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You set no criteria for Tanker Tuesday to meet to deserve a plaque that it has not already met. At what point do you either concede that it qualifies or admit that you are just being oppositional?

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You've given me no reason to support a permanent marker inside the game over any other celebratory event for the anniversary of this single server, single AT. event. And I've proposed *more* than most - including things that would be visible to those *outside* the game - yet aside from Acemace's listing, those seem to go ignored.

At what point do *you* concede?

I will when I get a good argument to the contrary as to why the counterproposals are not good enough, where this is the only acceptable option for a single server event, as long running as it may be.

Or, as Wikked put it:
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Because there are other ways to recognise a SINGLE SERVER event then to enshrine it gamewide.


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*points to my laundry-list "give 'em all this" suggestion*

... which would be visible, with varying points, both to subscribers and non subscribers.



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Well how about this Memphis Bill, since those opposing seem to look to you as the leader,

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More assumptions. You really need to stop making those. The others arguing against this can speak, and are speaking, for themselves.

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what if there was some graffiti added to that wall in that area that was innocuous enough to be missed by 99% of all players, instead of adding a plaque there.
It could say something like Tanks pwns u, or something that's funny and already on some walls, just not at that location yet.

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Why would "Tanks" have graffiti on the walls? Why would a hero vandalize the city?

And again, why should a single server event be permanently enshrined in the game? Agian, yes, wonderful, it's lasted 5 years, all of the prior arguments still have not convinced me it's deserving of more than other celebratory player events that have happened in game. And yet I've actually *proposed* more for it.

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Devs, the masses have requested for a plaque to be placed in- game and in-zone to honor those that have created one of the most incredible and dynamic community-created events ever. I submit to you, the designers, developers, administrators, and the the makers of City of Heroes/Villains to honor this incredible event that is "Tanker Tuesday".


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Do not presume to speak for me, for those who know me, or for the game population in general.

"The masses" have not. The organizers and a few people - some apparently requested to come over and speak up - have. That is not a mass. That is a minority.

The request itself is disputed.

The "long running event" is a single server event for a single AT. How many people participate? What is the server population? I don't think you could get a significant figure of the server population to honestly say they know about, much less participate in, the event. Much less a simple majority of the game's population. Or even a significant MInority.

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I think a plaque would be cool. I'd prefer plaques recognizing player accomplishments like this than plaques talking about generic events they created. It makes the game more 'alive' imo. Plus it's good advertising for a cool event to get players more into the game.

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This is a good point. Now that the game has been around five years, recognizing more actual events instead of backstory is a good idea. It also instills a feeling of community that helps keep subscribers hanging around longer.

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*points to my laundry-list "give 'em all this" suggestion*

... which would be visible, with varying points, both to subscribers and non subscribers.

Subscribers would see the in-game stuff during the 'celebration.' Just having the devs show up would be a draw for some.

Both would see the permanent "example of what our player community does" on the website, as well as forum discussion.

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I think my lack of recogntion of this SG adds alot to the debate.

[/ QUOTE ]If so, then the various people in this thread and elsewhere that haven't heard of Tanker Tuesdays is just as relevant.

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That's my point. The recognize the validity of the arguement, mine must be accepted as well.

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... and who said it was invalid? It's also very much a tangent to the primary argument. Nobody's pushing for RO (or the LoC, or any other long running group) to get a permanent in-game monument - plaque, statue, zone, whatever - named after them or celebrating them.

Tanker Tuesday is, and its proponents are often painting it as bigger than, and/or having more impact or recognition than it does, frankly.

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And i disagree, I think my lack of recogntion of this SG adds alot to the debate.

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Then don't discount the fact that many of us hadn't heard of Tanker Tuesday. It adds just as much, in that case.

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I enjoy the word "Skinvitational". It has an excellent ring to it.

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Until you combine it with the phrase "cut off," that is.

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You Need To Learn To Draw First

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When I was really young, I was interested enough in comics to take a drawing course. That was about 8-9 years ago. I was never awesome as I wanted, but I was satisfied with some fanart, RPG characters, or my own comic heroes.


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You Need To Learn To Read Before Replying.

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Player's Choice Awards by ALL servers, not just Champion.

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That looks like an [u]actual certificate of all servers support.[u]
How many events, whether they're still going or petered out years ago, have a document voted on by [u]all the players[u] with the signature of the games creator and popular CR Cuppa on it?

That's what I thought.

Thankfully to those looking to argue, that event was only held once, or you'd likely have five screen shots with signatures on them, and not a leg to stand on.

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No, that's a popularity contest. How many from where voted for what? What were the others? What were their votes? What percentage were from other servers? Was there a "Let's drum up support" like there is in this very thread regardless of who was doing what on other servers?

Back up your data. You have an assumption right now. Or are you, paraphrasing your own words, "thankful... that event was only held once?" You're sure ASSUMING what the results would have been.

Edit:
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I noticed that that certificate is 3 years old, for an MMO alot can happen in 3 years. I also don't recall ever voting for such a thing and I've been playing this game since launch.

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This, as well. Verbatim, except for the time played.

Would you like some sauce with that spaghetti argument?

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Comparing it to some empire-building exercise that exists primarily for the benefit of itself is just plain silliness, no matter what.


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... but isn't that solely what Tanker Tuesday is primarily for the benefit of ... people who participate in Tanker Tuesday? I'm not saying that to put it down, but it's like me arranging to go see a movie the first weekend of every month with friends. Yeah, it turns into "a thing," but it's sole purpose in existing is... to hang out with friends and make sure we have some time with each other to watch a movie. I wouldn't expect a plaque to be on every (say) AMC theater from Florida to Alaska because my friends and I in one city went for five years.

It's a get together for tanks on Champion to enjoy playing with other tanks on Champion. Again, yes, the run is commendable, but painting it as more than the get together is just stretching things, IMHO.

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And as for Costume Contests under Atlas, they got more than a plaque in Issue 11 when Twilight's Son made them a part of canon in his TF.

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... well, that was based on the comic(s) with the rest of the arc, honestly. Only Hickman can say if CCs had anything to do with it.

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Still a group of players, and NOT an event.

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An event is a group of players. A SG - in fact, a network of SGs - is, as well.
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Do they have anyone on Champion?

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Primarily they're Freedom, Justice, and Virtue.

Apostles of RO - FJV - All ATs
Black Ice - J - Ice and Dark powersets
Brain Damage - J - Psionic based powersets
Bubbleicious - F -If you've got a bubble in your pri/sec, you're in.
Damn Dirty Apes - Theme SG (costume)
Death from Above - F - Stalkers, Widows, Banes
Don't Whiz on the Electric Fence - F - Electric blaster/defender
Faithful Fans of Fallout - F - Rad
Fortissimo - V - Sonics
Green Machine - F - Empaths
Heretics of RO - FJV - Villainside
Justice Force - F - All ATs (h)
Legends of RO - F - 45+ RO members (h_
Lone Stars - V - Soloists (H)


... that's maybe half to 2/3 of the list. They have groups for Masterminds, Dark-style powers villainside, Tanks (Think Tank and Tanks for Nothing) and more.

Just so you get an idea of the organization, and possibly what it takes to keep it running and held together. http://www.repeat-offenders.net if you want to look through.

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ARRRGGHH.. that drawer just spoke to me!!!!!
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great.. now where am I gonna put my socks now :*(

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I'd think socks would help keep drawers quiet...

*needs monies, think I have another character that Wassy's style would fit well.*

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I find it funny when people who disagree are attacked for not agreeing with someone elses opinion. Why is the person disagreeing not intitled to thier opinion?

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I agree with that. On both sides. However, I see the opponents post as more attack oriented than the defensive posts of the proponents.

If you disagree with the idea, fine. Noted. I support your right to disagree.
But, some have stuck around to attack the idea. Repeatedly. That's more than just stating one's opinion.

Personally, I'm just try to help explain the reasoning and rubuttals.

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As I'm sticking around more than most on this, I'll say this as plainly as possible.

If you're reading any of what I'm saying as an attack, you're reading it wrong.

I am not saying "Why you, when X group doesn't have one?" In fact, if you look at *at least* one other response, I've even said that if the positions were reversed and (say) RO was doing the same thing, I'd be pushing back against them JUST as hard to justify it.

Tanker Tuesday seems bigger to those who are involved, because they're inside it. A mention or two *years* ago just puts them in with... well, every other event, And just about anybody, giving Ex the details, can get an event mentioned. That's not what I'd call a worthy yardstick - I could get one of my SGs together and hold a costume contest for our - think it's third coming up for the one I'm thinking of - anniversary and have that put in the updater. Or set up something for when I finally get the last few ATs up to 50 and say I'm throwing together a celebration for that. Should I then, next February, point at that and say that's why I deserve a plaque?

Several of you say you haven't heard of RO, or heard from the Taxibots. Well, that's what many of US are saying about Tanker Tuesdays - and the (properly done) search results dont' show any discussion about it anywhere but Champion.

Again, I agree it's a great milestone, and congratulate the organizers for keeping it running. But to me, from where I sit, it looks *precisely* like a single server event - just like Infinity's Taxibot monthly tours, which are still going. And while I support all the "package" I'd listed, I do feel we need to stop short of the "in game memorialization" of a plaque.

I haven't heard an argument that convinces me that last step of permanence is warranted. *shrug* That's all there is to it, IMO.

Edit: As odd as it is, having said that, I half agree with Dollymistress up there:
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Perhaps an impressive tree, or a big bad rock. Or a lil statue of a tanker hero. Or hey...maybe a broken tank.

Something that would make things clear for the organisers and participants but not explicit to players on other servers.


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Don't ask me to explain why. *shrug* Possibly because it's more general use - put there because of TT, but usable to everyone without being specific to one server.

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I am also in favor of some sort of metric or standard to be in place that sets a guideline for ideas like this.

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This, I'm fully in support of. (And part of why I'm arguing, as well, honestly. I'm very much "on the side of caution," if you've paid attention to my comments.) And if it leads to some guidelines - whether we see them or not - great.

I mean, of the examples we have... Coyote memorializing a dead player from beta? Bit too high of a barrier to entry Kill Skullz? Dev amused by it as they're thinking of adding other badges, kind of low (or random.) You could see that as "no barrier" or "Dev whim = potentially high barrier."

You skipped the entire "alternate package" from one of my posts. While it's partially a mix of the other ideas, it's still there.

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Tanker Tuesday has been a featured event on the updater and CoH MotD, reaching the majority of players who don’t ever read the forums. Placing a simple plaque offers the chance to promote more involvement in the event and in the community. If you don’t think that players should be involved in their community, then why are you even on the message boards?

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The last question is completely unneeded, and nothing but a distraction. As for the MOTD - I'm assuming you mean on the updater. There's been quite a lot there. And events can be put there at the request of the organizers. That's not, to me, a major factor in its importance. Many events have been there.

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Tanker Tuesday has inspired spin-offs of the event to other servers and also inspired the creation of events highlighting other ATs. It has invigorated players and been a force to keep people interested in the game month after month.

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The same can be said of many events as far as keeping interest. What has it done for interest in villainside directly? And again, being a multi-server player, I never hear about it in game, or referred to by anybody in game, even when on champion.

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Tanker Tuesday is a monthly event, not an SG. It draws people from all SGs together. Comparing it to an SG (of any type) is simply a fallacy.

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Way to dismiss the arguments pointing out what those SGs have done and the cross AT, truly multiserver nature of them. Dismissing said impact is just as much a fallacy.

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Tanker Tuesday is not about any single player or group of players. No one is suggesting that the founders of Tanker Tuesday (or any player or SG) be called out, no matter how much positive recognition they may deserve. Rather, the suggestion is for Tanker Tuesday itself, an event that draws people together as much as any raid (which offer badges and merits) or TF/SF/Trial (which offer badges and merits).

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As far as I've seen, the entire discussion has been solely about TT, not a plaque for the organizers. And again - see prior comments on SGs. I know full well RO ends up drawing in non-RO players and accepting them into their events. TT is not doing something here the others do not.

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Tanker Tuesday is associated with a specific location in the game. Just as costume contests are associated with the statue of Atlas, Tanker Tuesday is associated with the wall in Kings Row. Thus, having a plaque in that location is a fitting monument.

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TT has one location, on one server, that it's associated with. Costume contests, as you mention, are found under atlas... but on every server. And they have been there for as long as I've been in game, and before. Should we then have a costume contest plaque? It truly IS something that's been honestly community run, spontaneously, for as long.

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A plaque commemorating Tanker Tuesday proffers no threat or harm to any other group or event. Just because Tanker Tuesday get honored, that doesn’t impact honoring (or choosing not to honor) anything else.

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See prior comments on "wanting to open that door - or floodgate."

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Titles from Devs are nice and all, but temporary. Placing a simple plaque offers the ability to confer a title with a simple click (if the Devs want a title to go along with it). If someone doesn’t want it, then they don’t have to click on the plaque.

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And why have a plaque on every server - as they cannot, to the best of our knowledge - be server-specific, for an event that is not on every server?

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Honoring players (even without mentioning their names) for creating a lasting event which draws a community together is a positive thing. I find it sad to see people arguing to prevent it. How exactly is anyone harmed by this suggestion in any way?

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Its longevity is admirable. Its impact on the game as a whole is questionable. And, see prior response.

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Tanker Tuesday is not in conflict with the SGs or events previously mentioned in the thread. There is no competition here with anything else. Rather, commemorating Tanker Tuesday could serve an inspiration to players to form and uphold more lasting community events.

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This has been gone over more times than not. I'd be pushing any OTHER group or event just as hard to prove they should get something similar if they proposed it.

I've proposed alternatives. If your comment about a plaque "getting attention and drawing others to the event" is true, you should be supporting the alternatives, which would by their nature draw even MORE attention in theory.

Burn's Immob protection component has, it's been said, been a help - I wouldn't argue with moving it, but I'm not against keeping it IN burn.

The fear component, as well, some people have used to enhance their survivability. i'm not a fan of it as is, but I do see their point - it serves, frankly, the same purpose as Footstomp in my Fire/SS build, though IMHO Footstomp is more useful. Nothing runs out of it.

I'm all for adding a slow component to it, though, as I've said before. That way the fear component is still there, while it's also easier to keep mobs focused on you and NEAR you (the important thing to me as a tank.) Conceptually, I'd point at Hot Feet for having the slow.

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I say celebrate, don't hate.

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If you're reading "hate," you're reading it very wrong.