Moon_Angel

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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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And if anyone could enlighten me what that core reason actually is I'd be very grateful!

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I think the three very brilliant parts of CoH that keeps people's attention are the costume generator, the huge amount of ATs and powersets to play around with and, finally, the pacing of the fights which is fast and action-filled without being uncontrollable.

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I think there is a lot of truth to this.

I went and played Lord of the Rings Online and, as much as I enjoyed it (and it beats CoH in so many ways), the combat seemed dull and boring compared the sparkly, spectacular slugfests City of Heroes offers.

The comment earlier about the US and EU got me thinking. Are any of the current Devs' Choice arcs from Europe?

I think the Colonel is right, lots of people who do not read the forums will have no idea what the designation means.

That said, however, as arc designers start using it then word is likely to spread, since people will ask friends and other team mates about it. It may eventually become generally known.

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I must admit, although I held no interest in the MA, it has me hooked (to an extent) but like you, I have done my three and now cannot do any more without replacing them.

And the chances of getting into Devs choice seem remote unless you are part of the cult they have in the States, as so many arcs that nobody plays most of them.

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Having done two very long arcs I am taking a short break, but there is also an element of withholding gratification about it. I know I have only got one more slot left so I am saving it.

I just wish it wasn't like that.

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So? I've seen an Invul tanker with nothing but Resist Physical Damage and Invulnerability. At level 26.
Its NOTHING to do with the powers, its the players that play them.

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I assume you mean "invincibility".

Interesting. I would really like to see that tank in action. I really cannot see how such a build has much survivability.

Surely saying that it is "nothing" to do with the powers is a slight exaggeration?

Putting the arc ID, or at least the name, in the souvenir is a good idea, I think. I shall amend my two arcs accordingly.

Adding Dynamism to Missions

A splendid a game as CoH is, missions are essentially fairly static affairs: there are a lot of enemies standing around on a map and the mission is completed by knocking over some or all of them. Over the course of the game's history the developers have gradually added a number of new features to try to make missions feel more dynamic.

Arc designers can use a number of small, easy to implement tricks to add dynamism to their own missions and arcs, the key element of which is the use of dialogue.

For example: in the third mission of my story arc Wheels Within Wheels, a boss set to spawn at the front of the map has some in-combat dialogue which gives the heroes an insight into his mission. At the same time as this dialogue fires off, a new mission objective set to the middle of the map spawns which relates to that boss's communication. When the boss is defeated, the heroes receive a clue which reinforces the connection between the boss and the new objective in their nav bar.

Now, it would have been perfectly possible just to have the second mission objective active right from the start. The players would have completed the same objectives in the same order. But by using a little imagination, as described above, the mission feels more dynamic: it feels like things are moving, and that there are things already going on on the map which the heroes are now involved in.

Another example. In the first mission of the same arc, there is an ambush which occurs when a boss reaches one quarter health, but rather than simply having the ambush trigger, I have set up the boss's dialogue and the dialogue of the ambush to form what sounds like a sequence of radio communications where the boss is calling in reinforcements and the ambushing troops are responding.

None of this is very difficult, and I am sure many creative arc designers are already using similar techniques, but it does help to give the encounters the players have that little something extra.

No doubt creative story arc designers will come up with lots of other such ideas.

I think MA is really exciting and I have greatly enjoyed putting a lot of time and effort into writing two high quality arcs... but I am a little worried. I hope that the Devs' Choice process does not seize up.

Three arcs is not enough for me. I want to be able to create more. I just hope the Devs' Choice designation does not become a closed shop and cut off that possibility.

Still, maybe that should not be the most worrying thing. At present, without indulging in ongoing shameless advertising (which can be irritating for other players, I think) it is hard enough to get arcs played at all, or noticed in the sea of mediocrity and farming missions.

I wasn't sure whether to post this on the technical issues board but decided the response was likely to better here, given the highly specific nature of the problem.

Is anyone else experiencing intermittent problems with the "$name" function?

I have had several occasions with the arcs I have worked on when things work absolutely fine in testing and on a run through after publishing then mysteriously start going wrong later on another run through, with no editing to the arc having been done in the intervening time.

So for example, text will show correctly as "I sense Liberty Lass approaching. Be on your guard."

Then on another run through the same text will show as "I sense $name approaching. Be on your guard," where the "$name" shows as exactly that rather than inserting the name of the hero.

It is rather frustrating as it can make a highly polished arc or mission look rather unprofessional.

I think we need to be careful not to start arguing past each other here.

One claim is that there is a mountain of extremely poor content which has been generated in MA. This is true. Another claim is that there are a significant number of arcs which are of very high quality indeed and fantastic fun to play. This is also true.

The two obviously aren't incompatible.

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I've plenty of criticisms about MA mechanics (e.g. search)...
or the way that the devs handle 'exploits' (e.g. removing entire villain groups, like Prisoners - no - I'm not still annoyed at all - no)...
or the general noise of thoughtless pap created by some players.

But criticising potential stories purely due to being created by someone not employed by Paragon Studios is ridiculous.

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Totally agree with this. I have gone out of my way to make the two arcs I have published so far feel like authentic parts of the City of Heroes universe and those are also the kinds of arcs I am looking for in order to play on MA.

If they really do fit the CoH canon, and are of good quality, then they don't feel greatly different, to me, from the other arcs that form part of the main game.

I have never really lost my love for this game but MA has energised me again.

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And as the overrun ticks on it draws inexorably closer to that moment when I would have had to stop playing anyway...

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What?, you mean death?

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You mean when I die I won't just be transported to the nearest hospital?

*worries*

And as the overrun ticks on it draws inexorably closer to that moment when I would have had to stop playing anyway...

Hmmm. This is starting to bring back painful memories of I14 launch day when the downtime overran for with the "internal testing" message then the servers became playable almost precisely at the time I could no longer play.

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i had a patch before i logged in and that was at 13:15

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Hmmm. Maybe I did not notice it.

Has anyone had a patch applied?

Could someone who was ingame when the announcement was made clarify the schedule: is it 1pm-3pm?

Most frustrating. If I had known there was downtime coming I would have stayed online until the servers went down rather than running off for an early lunch.

Please add Devil Doll: controller, fire control/storm summoning/fire mastery.

Playing Liberty Lass all the way to 50, I don't recall her ever being detoggled. Of course, the way the system functions it is a possibility, although unlikely.

Many congratulations Lorri.

With Moon Angel I had absolutely no problems getting a team until the early 30s. This was back in the heyday of the tank and by the time teams were hitting the 30s and a well-slotted tank could hold and absorb all the aggro a mission could throw at it, a lot of teams went cool on empaths. I had a torrid time getting teams during the mid to late 30s.

Things picked up considerably in the 40s as teams started taking on significant numbers of AVs and suddenly I was in demand again.

However, with soloing next to impossible you are likely to be waiting on teaming opportunities all the way to 50. I took my scrapper to 50 in a fraction of the time it took with Moon Angel simply because I never ever had to wait around for a team. If there was nobody about I just went off and did my missions anyway until people started to show up.

I have to concur. My fire/storm controller is almost level 39 and she has been a blast to play. I have found that the storm set makes up for the slight lack of hard control offered by fire, while the fire set's damage output is superb. Fire imps are awesome. The combination of fire and storm is also visually spectacular. While I originally chose storm for conceptual reasons I have been so impressed with it that I am rolling a storm defender too.

Hmm, I remember Wonderman from way way back and I used to team with Krom and Native Flame quite a lot... this thread is bringing back a lot of memories. It was certainly easy to lose track of friends back in the days before global.