MrCaptainMan

Qr - also, it's not like the DC authors are short of plays or ratings, LOL, or are the only quality SFMA arcs put there, so in terms of helping out my fellow MAuthors who are in the 0-100 plays range, playing non-DC in preference to DC is possibly a better use of my time

Eco

Qr - I played quite a few of the Test DCs, and then when it went live I was busy writing my own arc and then using SFMA to find other arcs and using the MA Arc Finder channel to find arcs to play and players for my own. Recently I thought it was time to play the DC arcs again and recognize their authors hard work with a play and a rating. I did the first 5 or so on the list, gave feedback, and then then noticed a difference between my experience of DC arc play and my playing of arcs by authors of less 'famous' arcs. I've given feedback to 'unknowns' plenty of times and had 'cheers v much! You have an arc I could play?' as a response. As far as I'm aware, none of the DC authors who I've sent feedback to have played my arc.

That's not neccessarily a criticism. If you're getting hundreds of plays and dozens of feedback tells every session, you're hardly going to be able to play everyones arcs, but, well, I'm not hundreds of people, LOL, and I want my arc played too, so I'd rather focus on players who will be more likely to play mine. DC arcs are not a priority for me any more, though I will play them all eventually I'm sure.

As for the quality of DC, the ones I've played have been pretty good I really liked the Butterfly Effect and welcome to Arxhtect Entertainment, and turgs Ghost arc is one if my favourite arcs in coh, canon or not.

Eco

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course as a very anti same sexual orientation person, I did not wanting to
say anything for fear of it being taken the wrong way.

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/Kenneth Williams "ooh, I'm sure you wouldn't!"

Eco

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It's funny. The only change so far that's cheesed me off is the removal of chicken tug.

Why? WHYYYYY??

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I [censored] you not: The animation is really long and mobs were getting "stuck" in it. So people were using it for NPC's as an exploit to keep them from being able to attack before a group could come in and wipe out a mob while they were still tugging on their chickens.

So to speak.

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Seriously, farmers were doing this?

You know, if I were omnipotent, I'd lose little sleep over removing all trace of these people from history.

Eco

Typically, mere minutes after hitting 'post', I solved it, though the solution doesnt make me think it's solved ALL my placement hair-tearing lol.

it turned out that on the particular map I am using, middle and back are reveresed but ONLY for collections, not bosses!

Eco.

I hope to heck they plan on fixing the placement points thing with maps. I havbe been trying for the last 3 hrs to find an arachnos map, ANY arachnos map, where the placement points are at least consistent in their placing, even if back means middle etc.

For an example, I have 2 collections set to Front, and on my latest Potential Map, they ALWAYS appear in the perfect spot near the front of the map. Two bosses, that I've also set to Front, appear at the back, in the middle, anywhere but Front. The map is big enough and according to its info the bosses WILL fit in the front. To make thigns worse, if i just swap Middle and Back, my collections set to Middle (that previously appeared in Back) now still appear in the back but the bosses appear in the middle!

Insanity

Eco.

PS has anyone found any maps that actually work as they claim to, in regard to placement points? A list of reliable maps would be great.

Qr - the best way to eliminate ratings griefing is for the devs to automate an MA lockout system tied to their datamining. If Johnny Griefer gets tagged by the system for starting X arcs, not finishing X arcs, and low-rating X arcs, with X being set at whatever the devs decide is 'too high', he should be autmaticallt locked out and sent an auto email informing him why, with the usual 'appeal to CS' being available to him.

This system should be widely advertised as being in place, and possibly some invented examples quoted to act as deterrents.


Eco

Excellent. thanks, both.

Eco.

Can anyone recommend a map for me?

I need it to be linear, with as few branchings as possible, large enough to have say 20 spawn points, and have consistent reliable front middle and back placement points. It can be pretty much any type, but i'd prefer NOT caves.

Eco.

I read everything. One of my common feedback comments is "more text, please!"

Eco.

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And...it just happened again.

Yesterday, got a few more plays (all 5-stars I might add) and it bumped me back to up page 4. Think I was at about 61-62 rates. Log in today to find I'm up to 65 rates, but back down to 4-stars (no comments from anyone BTW). Didn't even bother trying to find the arc as it's most likely back down in the page 250+ range.

This rating system needs a MASSIVE overhaul. Every comment I've gotten from people basically fit along the lines of "awesome arc" or "reminds them of an official story" or that they enjoyed it. I don't mind 3-4 star ratings, provided the person rating it tells me why they 3-4 star it.

These 1-star cowards, and yes, they are cowards, are really starting to annoy the @#*$ out of me.

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4 stars is great.

My arcs got 52 plasys, 4 stars, feedback consistently boils down to "Great! 5 stars!".

4 stars is really good.

One reason why the 1-starrers arent giving you feedback is possibly because they are afraid of a revenge rating from you. The BHMA tag has unfortunately garnered a reputation, just as the JSNTS one did. i'm not saying that you're likely to revenge low-rate anyone, but it's possible the low raters might think you would, if they think you value badge-progress more than the creative integrity of your arc.

Eco.

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4-stars may be "great", but it means you will most likely never get random, drive-by plays. Getting stuck down at page 200+ means that unless someone is specifically looking for whatever your arc has to offer, it'll never be seen.

If you aren't man enough to risk getting it in return, then don't do it in the first place. The only reason these cowards can get away with it is because they know they will never have to put their money where their mouths are.

They don't even finish the arc. I check the progress on the Played <x> Times Badge, and every time I get bandited, there's no increase to it.


And no, they weren't three star rates because I had no tickets to claim (I had cleared them out last night). Ergo, 1-star (or 2-star) banditry.

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yes, ok, it seems that you were indeed rated 1 -r 2 (or even zero, thats possible too) for your arc.

If they didnt finish, it could well have been griefing. I have had to quit arcs that were too difficult for me, however. I don't rate as a matter of principle if Im enjoying it and have no exploit/farming issues with an arc, but some people may be harsher in their ratings, if you have svere strength AVs in your arc for example.

As for being on page 200 or whatever, I wouldn't rely on random plays even if my arc was 5 starred. I seem to get 95% of my arcs plays from pimping it (moderately) in various channels and mentioning its name and ID in my feedback on other arcs Ive played.

The 'man enough' point - i almost exclusively play story-focused arcs. On rare occasions, I accidentally get suckered into starting a farm arc by an interesting sounding description (I do sometimes dip inot the middle of the pool).

As soon as I suspect I'm in a farm arc, i have a look around for some narrative, then if i fail to find some I quit, low-rate and move on. The authors of such arcs are in my experience unlikely to appreciate me saying 'I suggest you add a plot to your arc.' and are probably also unlikely to then even bother playing my carefully written story arc, let alone rate it based in its creative merits. Its those people I'm not man enough to waste my time and feedback on.

Eco.

Im playing through all the DC arcs at the moment on my 50 en/en blaster. I played quite a few of them when they were on test, and this time round im noticing theyre a lot harder. I guess that the last patch made the customs stronger, and its difficult to edit DC arcs.

Eco.

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And...it just happened again.

Yesterday, got a few more plays (all 5-stars I might add) and it bumped me back to up page 4. Think I was at about 61-62 rates. Log in today to find I'm up to 65 rates, but back down to 4-stars (no comments from anyone BTW). Didn't even bother trying to find the arc as it's most likely back down in the page 250+ range.

This rating system needs a MASSIVE overhaul. Every comment I've gotten from people basically fit along the lines of "awesome arc" or "reminds them of an official story" or that they enjoyed it. I don't mind 3-4 star ratings, provided the person rating it tells me why they 3-4 star it.

These 1-star cowards, and yes, they are cowards, are really starting to annoy the @#*$ out of me.

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4 stars is great.

My arcs got 52 plasys, 4 stars, feedback consistently boils down to "Great! 5 stars!".

4 stars is really good.

One reason why the 1-starrers arent giving you feedback is possibly because they are afraid of a revenge rating from you. The BHMA tag has unfortunately garnered a reputation, just as the JSNTS one did. i'm not saying that you're likely to revenge low-rate anyone, but it's possible the low raters might think you would, if they think you value badge-progress more than the creative integrity of your arc.

Eco.

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Qr - I don't mind DC and HoF staying, but they should change HoF to be sth like the suggestion of X times 3+stars or what have you, but I'd like to see the 'play x HoF arcs' badges changed so that they were for playing DIFFERENT HoF arcs.

Eco

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Can you post a clearer version after you get to a regular computer, instead of posting from your cell phone?

I am having a hard time understanding what you are trying to say.

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sorry.

I don't mind Devs Choice and Hall of Fame badges staying in the game.

I'd rather see the HoF badge requirements changed to something similar to that which was suggested earlier, namely, you get HoF after a finite number of stars has been granted, not an average reached. For example, if the rew was 1000 stars, then an arc with 200 plays and with each one garnering 5 stars would get HoF, but so would an arc with 1000 plays rated at 1 star by everyone who played it. I can't see why anyone would choose to play a 1 star, 500+ plays arc though, which would help to maintain some level of quality in the HoF arcs perhaps.

I would also like to see the badges gained by playing X number of arcs (either the DC ones or the ones for normal MA arcs) have their requirements changed so that each play has to be of a different arc, ie running the same arc over and over would not count towards the badge requirement. This would encourage people to play different arcs and discourage grind.

My apologies for not being clearer earlier.

Eco.

Qr - I don't mind DC and HoF staying, but they should change HoF to be sth like the suggestion of X times 3+stars or what have you, but I'd like to see the 'play x HoF arcs' badges changed so that they were for playing DIFFERENT HoF arcs.

Eco

Qr - If they remove badges from the system, should they remove those badges from people who have already earned them?

Eco

Edit: added 'qr'

QR - 'Step 1 - Steal Underwear'

I might have to add this to future arcs as a matter of course.

Eco.

Qr - so just go make sure I get it - if I have a word document with my special characters on it, and I cut n paste from that into the MA text field, then leave that field alone, when I publish it'll work?

Eco

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Mission Architect souveniers are saved in a local text file that either purges itself over time or else limits the maximum number of souveniers you can have at one time (I'm not sure which).

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Is there any official description or explanation of this anywhere?

I don't mean I don't believe you

But this strikes me as surely something that the plasyers wouldn't want?

Eco.

After playing over 50 arcs, I have lost all of my MA souvenirs. Doesn anyone know why this is?

I'm going to be mightily peeved if this is working as intended.

Eco.

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QR

My arc The Echo can be soloed fairly easily by any AT. Although the final mission does include 15 chained boss fights, they are all set as low as possible in terms of difficulty.

Eco.

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Just played through your mission. It was really good. Last boss killed me once, but I came back loaded and finished the job. I would suggest you put a note on each of your clues on the last mish and show the player how many more bosses are left. Like 1/15, 2/15 ect. Cause I lost count and was like, "when is this going to end!!". Have a date on the way so that didn't help either Other than that, cool story and I really enjoyed your writing and style. That one librarian boss that said, "shhhhhhh" when he died actually made me chuckle..



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Thanks for playing my arc! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

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I have one arc I been working on, its done for the most part but I am not satisfied with the wording just yet. Check it out if you like : arc ID 125357 A Captain's Tale

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I shall certainly play it. Whwnever I get feedback from someone on my arc, I play their arcs in return.

Eco.

Qr - thank heavens for that!

Eco

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We also need a "rate later" or "pause arc. button for those times when you start an arc, play some of it and then realize you A. need/want to restart it with teammates. b. Its just not your sort of thing but you have nothing against it and just shouldn't rate it because you didn't play enough of it. C. Need/want to go help your SG, friend, etc with a mission, base raid, TF or whatever...and that means quiting architect mode.

In any of these circomstances you just want out of the arc for now without rating it...which could lead to artifical zero stars for the designer.

Phase light

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Woah! Hang on a minute. If we start an MA arc, and then either finish it or quit without touching the stars at all, that counts as a zero rating?

I have started a Villainous arc on my Blaster, got so immersed in the first mission that I felt that playing the whole thing on a villain would be doing it more justice (Hopeless, by either Lazarus or Talen_Lee, i forget which now), so quit and restarted on my Stalker. I didnt rate until the second play. I thought I WAS essentially 'rating later'. That arc was certainly not a zero-starrer.

I've also played all the way through an arc and had a discussion with the author whilst doing it, and not rated because the author had dewscribed changes he was making to it which i felt would alter the rating (for the better, usually). I've finished that arc and then replayed the
new' one, and then rated it. The first quit was counted as zero ratings?

if so, that's rubbish.

Eco.

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Well, I just created an arc entirely in Korean and it worked in every field I put it in including names and descriptions of custom critters, patrol and boss dialog, navigation text, contact dialog, and even the name of the custom group and the file name! 아사! :-)

edit: but apparently it doesn't work on the boards...

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In order for it to work on the boards, you have to reverse the polarity of the neutron flow. Then then the forum font changes to venusian.



Eco.

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Or maybe just upgrade them from a system that was past its prime already back in '04.

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Reversing the polarity of the neutron flow is simpler, and more effective, in pretty much every case.

Eco.

QR

My arc The Echo can be soloed fairly easily by any AT. Although the final mission does include 15 chained boss fights, they are all set as low as possible in terms of difficulty.

Eco.