MrCaptainMan

The JSNTS thread made me think that maybe a similar tag could be used by us creative types in our arc descriptions so that people searching could easily find story-focused arcs. The MA advanced search site is of course useful for this type of search (and can be found at www.masearch.somee.com) but an in-game aid would also be useful i think.

I have added [SFMA], for Story Focussed Mission Arc, to the description field of my arc, and if any other MA authors who favour story over the more mechanistic aspects of what the MA can do add it too, I for one will find them and play them when they appear.

Er, does this sound like a good idea?


Eco.

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Just an honest question here, I've seen more than a few folks grump about them, and I really don't know why. Since I use one in one of my missions, I'd like to know so I can properly weigh the pros/cons for it .

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I don't mind them at all. They're linear, not particularly big (no kill-alls tho pls), and suitable for a variety of narrative purposes.

Eco

Qr - count your lucky stars they didn't make it 250 DIFFERENT HoFs LOL

Eco

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Well, until the devs fix this problem, I'd suggest that everyone start up, quit out, and 5 star all the existing 999+ arcs that are currently 4 starred. With enough of us actively trying, we should be able to force an HoF back into 4.5 territory long enough for us to get these badges.

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As much as I would love to get HoF badge, I'd rather get it because people actually enjoyed my arc. And yes I have one in the 4 star 999+ category.

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Enjoying the content of an arc that's being played through in order to get a badge is utterly moot to some of the badge community. To the 'badgia', the badge is all, irrespective if how it is gained. Badges that can be gained fairly easily through 'normal'play are being farmed, which strikes me as absolutely ludicrous, but since it's possible to gain the badges this way, it will happen. If your arc gets into the HoF, there will be a sizeable proportion of badgers playing it with scant regard for any content; in fact, I daresay they'll be stealthing thru it as quickly as possible, ignoring any time-wasting activity such as reading the dialogue or clues you've spent time crafting, because that slows down badge progress.

Eco.

QR - This thread is hilarious. However, to answer your question seriously, if your arc was banned, then it was against the rules. The "GM reacted and took it away", remember. The GMs dont pull every arc that's reported. If an arc gets flagged, a GM will look at it and then decide if it's ok or not. You can I believe appeal.

There has already been a statement that arcs that give players an unfair statistical advantage will be banned. If your farm arc gave loads more tickets and inf and whatnot than a 'normal' arc that's been created with no or idle thought to drops, then that would fall under that umbrella definition.

Eco.

Qr - what, like Memphis_bill and lady_sadako?

If they give you permission, I guess. I've asked for permission to use prof backfire in an upcoming arc and he's given me the nod.

Ask first, politely, is my advice.

Eco

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If only there was a branching feature where say completing mission A would lead to mission B but failing A leads to C. Or Failing A leads to B but completing A jumps right to C with B your chance to fix things.

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Well that would be pretty sweet, but for my purposes I'd be happy if I could just say "Well you blew it, see ya."

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I'd be interested in seeing your rating history if this was possible LOL

Eco

And it definitely rounds itself to the enarest star amount?

Pff, I wish we could get an official explanation of how the HoF is supposed to work

Eco.

There's been some debate around about the ratings requirements for HoF. My search fu is weak, and I can't find a clear answer as to how many ratings are needed and what they are supposed to be.

Can anyone point me to the last direct quote from a dev on the subject?

Eco.

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HOF missions losing their status is ridiculous.

The bar is high enough that getting over it represents a major achievement and a guarantee of a certain level of quality- where's the logic in 'losing' them at some future date?

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

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We declare the popular vote legitimate enough to get it there, but then say it is no longer relevant if that same group votes it down?

I dunno I'm on the fence, but if we have "faith" in the voting system to work then you can't really pick and chose just because one outcome isn't desirable.

If the people vote you down then you should only have 3 spots just like everyone else. If the mission is strong enough it will achieve a solid HoF and maintain it indefinitely. Assuming we have "faith" in the voting system that is.

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I'd rather look at the extra slot as a one-time reward for acheiving hoF. You don't ask an Olympic Gold Medalist Sprinter to keep winning the event every week in order to keep his medal. If someone gets into the HoF, they should get an extra slot for doing that. if they drop out it doesn't reverse time and change their past success.

Eco.

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I liked Muu's earlier thought that it should, at the least, go into a "former HoF" status or something. That way, if the arc is actually terrible and it was just a giant voting block or something it doesn't keep the status unfairly, but it also gets recognized for having at least 1000 5 star votes at one point.

I imagine this would also solve the "You have access to a fourth arc, you don't" status.

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Hmm, I did't think about voting blocks. We don't want some badge-clubs token 1-mission 1 objective arc being HoF forever after the badgers have got it up there. So yeah, maybe HoF needs to maintain a certian rating (lower than it's intital attainment req, I aggree, is a good idea) to maintain it's HoF status. But the extra slot should definitely not be lost.

Eco.

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I may be the target of your wrath, MrCaptainMan, and I'm sorry. But the thing is, there are only two Portal Corp maps, they're both the same size, and in fact they're both the same map except for which end you start at.

The story makes so much SENSE to be taking place at Portal Corp, a regular tech map wouldn't quite match. I'd love to have a small one, just like I'd love to have smaller outdoors maps

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Looking at your arcs, I don't think it was yours, I did them on test. I guess i was maybe unlucky with playing three in a row that used it lol.

And I'm not immune from it either. The last mission in my arc uses a giant cargo ship map, largely empty except for 18 chained boss fights (they're essential, story-wise - honestly!). if the player doesn't realise that the happen in sequence from front to back (I do point it out in the briefing), he's in for some apparently pointless wandering lol.

I don't mind Huge Map Syndrome if the maps are linear, and there;s stuff to do on the way. Even patrols or non-req objectives, anything with some flavour text will do to break up the monotony.

Eco.

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You're able to get the spawn locations to be ordered with the cargo maps? Nice, pretty much, I can not get anything [specifically] to routinely spawn in the last room. Which is pretty annoying to me , but I've just accepted it.

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It took loads of testing, but eventually I got it as best as can be, which is that the first 6 bosses spawn in the first room, the second 6 in the middle two rooms and the last 6 in the final room. However, as there are 21 spawn points in the map as a whole, there are a few random spawns of mobs dotted around. They unfortunately cause that sometimes, the crossover points (bosses 6 and 7, bosses 12 and 13) intermingle, so that the player can defeat boss 5 and then find boss 6 in the middle room, and after defeating him go on to explore the middle two (apparently empty) rooms when boss 7 is back in the first. Its annoying, but after over a dozen different combinations of maps and placements and tearing my hair out, i had to settle for this being the best i could do.

THE one thing i'm hoping for in MA vs is the ability to pick spawn points (v1 is still totally awesome imo, I'm not complaining).

Eco.

EDIT Incidentally, the placements were backwards on that map. The bosses set as Front span in the back room, and vice versa :P

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Okay, apparently arcs that enter the Hall of Fame can lose that rating due to down-votes (I'm now back in the Hall of Fame, but probably not for long). I have the extra publishing slot so long as the arc remains in the Hall of Fame, but once it's voted out, I lose the extra slot.

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If this is working as intended, then it's insanity gone mad (possibly hyperbolic, that, but i like using the phrase ).

HoF should lock once its acheived, in my opinion. If the Devs intend fot it to NOT lock, then I can't believe that they mean for the extra slot to vanish too. I'd believe that's a bug rather than think that's what they want.

Eco.

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I may be the target of your wrath, MrCaptainMan, and I'm sorry. But the thing is, there are only two Portal Corp maps, they're both the same size, and in fact they're both the same map except for which end you start at.

The story makes so much SENSE to be taking place at Portal Corp, a regular tech map wouldn't quite match. I'd love to have a small one, just like I'd love to have smaller outdoors maps

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Looking at your arcs, I don't think it was yours, I did them on test. I guess i was maybe unlucky with playing three in a row that used it lol.

And I'm not immune from it either. The last mission in my arc uses a giant cargo ship map, largely empty except for 18 chained boss fights (they're essential, story-wise - honestly!). if the player doesn't realise that the happen in sequence from front to back (I do point it out in the briefing), he's in for some apparently pointless wandering lol.

I don't mind Huge Map Syndrome if the maps are linear, and there;s stuff to do on the way. Even patrols or non-req objectives, anything with some flavour text will do to break up the monotony.

Eco.

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Well if you're after tickets and such assuming you are. Isn't that the whole point of a big map? Kill the spawns, get more tickets.

Unless you're one of those people that likes to ghost everything and prefers the mission bonus, which I really don't understand why. Just seems like a waste of time to me.

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I like to ghost on my 50. He doesnt need any more XP, he's fine for inf, he seems to do just fine for tickets even stealthing, and I prefer narrative to fighting.

Sometimes, I've discovered through the Ma, as it happens, I'll get so sucked into the story that I'll stop stealthing and fight. I cleared all in the last mission of Project: Perilous (I'll keep pimping this arc shamelessly until it gets Dev's Choice, imo it's superb) just because i was enjoyuing the ambience and story so much i wanted to make it last as long as possible.

If that happens to me, then it's a cert that i'm impressed. Usually (on my 50 anyway), the mobs in between me and the next clue or bio are the waste of time (although with the new custom critterss I'll always have a go at some of them when i first encounter them, to see what they're like in a fight). That being the case, endless floors of just running past mobs bores me to tears.

Eco.

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I've never seen "The Day After Tomorrow", which explains my own confusion. Did cut my teeth on all those old cheesy-but-great Harryhausen flicks, though.

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Its an eminently forgettable blockbuster sci-fi epic (fail) disaster movie from the bloke that did Independance Day. One of the set pieces has the characters running away from...a bit of really cold air. It's got a kickass tidal wave hitting Manhattan, but in terms of anything else its utterly 'meh'.

I used it and Jason and the Argonauts to sort of illurtrate a point that I think supports leaving any DCs permanent. If it's good now, it'll still be good even if there's all new-fancy bells and whistles to the engine in 3 years, IF the Devs are choosing DCs based on story, not just flashy gimmicks. Which is what I think they should be (and are, from what i've seen so far) doing.

Eco.

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Jason and the argonauts. The day after tomorrow. They both have stateof the art effects for their time, but only one is still awesome. It's NLT always about the tech.

Eco

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Ray Harryhausen is ALWAYS awesome, you philistine!!!

Or is that what you meant?

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Lol, I just took it as read that nobody would even consider The Day After Tomorrow a better film than Jason.

Eco.

EDIT maybe I shouldn't have used the word 'still' in my post - The Day After Tomorrow was never awesome lol

Jason and the argonauts. The day after tomorrow. They both have stateof the art effects for their time, but only one is still awesome. It's NLT always about the tech.

Eco

Casablanca doesntstop being a great film just cos...bubba ho tep is made.

Eco

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Let's not make this about me specifically, okay? I don't give a hoot if you 'sympathize' with me. Sympathize more with the playerbase who have to deal with a system that is potentially flawed and unattainable. I'd like to think that just because I have a DC I'm not somehow ineligible from discussing the game mechanics.

Anybody who writes well and could potentially contribute more good content to the game if only they had the slots to do it should be getting more slots, be it by DC, HOF, microtransaction, crafting, sacrifice a goat to Zeus, whatever. And in this particular case I'm not seeing how HOF is a realistic option, due to the 4.5+ average.

If I'm wrong about the 4.5+ average, if it's really 4.01+, then that's a BIT more attainable; basically half the arcs you see up there with 4 stars would be HOF candidates. I'd love dev confirmation one way or another, though.

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Sorry, Twoflower, I didn't mean to come across as having a go at you specifically. Your DC is well-deserved imo, and more slots for you will only mean more good arcs for us all to enjoy.

I agree that the system as is is not perfect, but as I said earlier, I am convinced that more slots will be available to us all at some stage in the future for a price. When that happens, you can buy all the slots you need. until then, why not do the other thing the MA is good for - playing arcs instead of creating new ones?

Eco.

QR - that title is hilarious. You crack me up, L_S!

And good to know this stuff, too.

Eco.

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I was kind of thinking the Dev Choices were written BY the devs. How else did they get picked out so quickly with so few ratings? Noticed some guy had a hall of fame with 0 ratings...whut? Or one had 999+ on the opening day. That's GOTTA be a dev that just set his architect arc to god-tier.

There's so many pages upon pages, and it's so hard to know what's trash and what's alright and what's awesome. I wish there was some kind of database on the CoH website where you could get a better idea. Ya know, Neverwinter Nights mods style. Read reviews and have the mission creator replying to questions or comments. I had played a few really funny arcs, but I'm sure there's just as many i'll never see shining beneath the clutter :/

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The Dev Choiced arcs that were already there when I14 went live were some of the arcs created on test in Closed and Open Beta that were DCd in Test. Theya re all written by players, and there's some good stuff there, really. I haven't seen any hoF arcs on live yet, so I can't comment on that.

Eco.

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I didn't see any of this 'fix the system!' from him on test where he had 6 or more DCd arcs and was sitting pretty at the top of the lists.

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I don't think the statistical unlikelihood of getting an aggregate 4.5 rating on Live servers, with players who aren't self-selected testers and creators, who will one-star your mission because it's not a farm or they don't like the color of your custom critter, had quite hit home yet. I think most of us on Test were being creative and trying to roll with the bugs and provide feedback in good faith, rather than contemplate all the ways in which the playerbase at large can and will be idiots and jerks. As usual, first contact with said general playerbase was... "educational." (Let's count all the farm arcs. You might need a bigger piece of paper.)

But if you want to reduce this to basic self-interest: if a member in good standing of the Sekrit Forum Mission Architect Cartel Axis can't even get HoF, what chance does anyone else have? Well, except for the farm arc makers I guess. Yeah, I really look forward to the first ten pages of HoF being "ez tikts" - Very Short - Freakshow.

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Please don't selectively quote from me in order to weight your take on what I said. As I said, I do sympathize with Twoflower, but some of us are in a worse position.

Eco

QR - Im in an arc now. first mission, 2 objectives. find a glowie, defeat a boss. theyre on different FLOORS of the map, I'm story focussed, on my 50, and Im stealthed. running all over the place is not fun, especially on the first misison.

Eco.

If i have to go through the damn portal corp map one more time to find one glowie and a boss right at the end, im going to scream.

There are smaller maps to choose from! Save the big ones for missions that have lots of objectives!

Sheesh.

Eco.