MrOsterman

[ QUOTE ]



Some aren't really farming teams, but just people looking for someone else to put together and run the team. Quick and easy pugging in a fast location, in otherwords Atlas or Mercy or Cap AE. They just want a team. ANY team. That was some of what the Meow craze was - instant teams, no waiting, anyone welcome.

[/ QUOTE ]

The other thing is that many of the AE missions do a big auto level so that you can just get any 8 people together. I'm pulling my hair out because I want my new story to auto Sk higher because pre level 12 there's not enough mez protection, but I can't strip out enough of the stock baddies to push it up there and still have content.

I cant' wait until we can just say "boom, this mission should autolevel to 32".

[ QUOTE ]
I have to admit when I play I look for short to medium arcs simply because I don't want to spend hours getting through one writer's story.

All my own arcs fall into that range because I like creating custom groups and they suck up file space. I have one story that someone commented they enjoyed it and wished it was an arc. I thanked him for the comments and explained that by the time I got that first story finished I was up to 98% of my maximum file size. There is not a whole lot you can do with 2%.

[/ QUOTE ]

I understand totally. I had to do a custom group for An Army of One and it sucked up space. I ended up dumping out some custom bosses from the early missions to make room for another custom Lt later.

The problem is that I do feel odd having a single objective story, and I hate people who load up a map with surprise objectives. I get one suprise, maybe, but to have 4 chained objectives?

What would be nice is if we had a better way to manage the space, or some alternative in game listings. There are websites that list arcs but they're not easily accesable the way the main AE interace is set up. It'd be nice if we could also create our own 'portals' in game where a supergroup could crate a clearing house of a dozen or so prefered Arcs.

I just published my second arc, and one that is geared in that level range:

Name: An Army of One
Foes: 5th Column Loyalist and Custom Group
Missions: 4 total, small or med maps.
Intro: You have been asked to show around a student from the local highschool as part of a super's mentoring program. When the base commander you arrest makes a threat on her family, all things began to come unhinged. Her little sister is cast into immediate danger at the hands of a new faction. Can you save her sister from this new threat?

[ QUOTE ]

But in all fairness, to take your point of view, if all I am doing is leaving a game where "fun" and challanging means more hit points and more damage but leave the AI as dumb as a rock then I leave you to your fun. Grinding through mobs is not fun, hell you can tell the AI sucks when everything has both melee and distance attacks.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, not to pick a nit, but the reason that all mobs have both is to deal with people taking hover and turning the game into easy mode by just hovering around and looking for mobs that can't fly but only have melee.

But hey... I'm having fun and have been for years now. So I wish you luck in your new grind free MMO when you find it, the one where the developers make it easy to level, provide you tons of baddies to kill relatively risk free, and you never have to worry about silly story lines to complicate your time.

Enjoy that MMO when you find it.

[ QUOTE ]
Many people have been leaving this game because of this issue. You can feign ignorance, but honestly, your not going to convince anyone here that you didn't know this. (See that works both ways).

[/ QUOTE ]

Many people quit after the purple patch. Oh Noes!

Many people quit after the global scrapper nerf. Oh Noes!

Many people quit after ED. Oh Noes!

And all of those were things that affected how ~Everyone~ played.

I'm sorry that this guy didn't get a better customer service response. THey put out a campfire with main fire line, and yah maybe over shot. Call me Holier Than Thou if you want, but when my friends told me about the 10 hours to 50 doing nothing but arc missions, I knew they'd shut it down because how long does the game last when everyone's 50, and there's nothing to do?

But in all fairness, if the group of people who quit are people who prefer to play in massive boss farms, then I honestly won't be impacted by their parting. I don't group with people like that because I like to play things other than scrappers and tanks, so I'll barely be useful to them on thier farms. On one farm I ~did~ do I was even told not to heal because it might draw agro. Just sit and watch, or in the case of one person, fillout a survey in a beauty mag (she was typing the questions to us and helping us figure our scores while the tank and blaster cleaned the map out). They aren't people that would group with me to find cool story arcs and they aren't people who'd try to tackle a TF with me.

It's too bad the arc got locked but I don't see it as being "good" for CoX at large to have people using teh AE system to go from new character to level 50 in a single day. Sorry. I side with the Dev's on trying to keep a cap on how ~easy~ that is. Maybe they can't eliminate it but they can try to reign it in.

[ QUOTE ]
It is insane to think someone is going to run to the message boards to check to see if what they are doing with their MA mission is OK by the devs if the game allows you to do it. Nothing I did looked to me like I was exploiting a bug. I simply made a mission I thought people would want to play so I could get extra tickets and badges.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's your call but I can tell you honestly that even without the boards I would have recognized that hyperinflated XP and tickets were going to get smacked down on and down on hard.

You say you didn't know so you want the slot back. I have a feeling that they'll give it on appeal. But you don't care to do that. You'd rather pick up your cape and go to greener pastures.

That's your call. But you honestly won't convince anyone here that you didn't know you'd get in trouble.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You can have a lvl4, lvl22, lvl33, lvl44 team Together w/out sidekick issue since when you enter the mission, everyone is auto sidekick to level50. Call it auto level to 50, or use the term you seem fit.

What I'm looking for is a mission Arc, that is like that , but not a farm.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sign me up as interested in these. I'd love to run a mission arc with a group of friends from 5-35 and not have to worry about sks.

[/ QUOTE ]

With I15, MA makers can set the level, for now they have to try to tweak the characters to fit, because the 'level' of the mission is based on the available level range of each map.

American Welcome is set to level 30 and up so anyone below is kicked to 30 but if you're above that you'll have to get SK's out.

[ QUOTE ]

Teltsar, now that you have some information you may call me a cheat. It won't change the fact that they lost accounts over it or that they put out content yet again without thinking. How many people do you think are making missions similar to mine right now who have never come to the message boards before? Do you think it is possible for players to break their as yet undefined rules without even knowing it? Yes it is, I did it.

[/ QUOTE ]

By using the system as you could you were not cheating. However, you had to realize that tossing in things "just for badges" and setting it up for easy ending (and thus bonus tickets), that you were starting to bend the rules.

And you know you can still make those arcs. You can still fill a map with minions set on Extreme, and you can still find ways to spawn hordes of them. If you really want to "feel super" you can do it.

But you wont' get piles and piles of XP or tickets for it any more. So you quit.

If all you cared about was 'feeling super' you could do that. You could wade through hordes of enemies. Heck you can do that just by saying "hey, let's see if we can get 3 mobs at once' and then chain pull. But you wouldnt' be getting the boku XP so you quit.

And taht's fine. No one is making you pay your money but I think if you ask any of the developers if they feel they made a mistake closing these loop holes because people like you quit, they'll probably say that the game at large is better off with out.

either way: Can I have your stuff?

[ QUOTE ]
Hi Folonius

It's not that they didn't give back my slot. I waited two days for a response from customer service, besides the first one letting you know they are working on it. My wife and I just decided it was no longer a game worth playing. We beta tested CoH heroes, watched as they changed the game over and over. ED killed my wifes main, a regen scrap, none of our characters felt SUPER anymore. When I first played an MA mission it was like old times. Our characters were awesome again, we had a blast. I got a couple friends to resub, got my brother inlaw a copy to try, so actually it was six accounts they lost total. This was just the last straw of a string of bad things. We got tired of waiting for them to figure out what is "fun."

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry to see you go, but honestly if you can only have fun by playing the game on what ammounts to easy mode, then I won't miss grouping with you.

You say you didn't feel "super" any more and that's a fair critique, but honestly we've seen that complaint since day one. When a first level hero couldn't solo an arch villian we heard how we weren't super enough. When we had to earn our capes, we heard we weren't super enough. When ever they had to nerf something to bring it inline with something else, they felt less super.

I'm sorry you all poured money into playing with a broken system, the mass earning of XP on farm missions but I'm stunned that you'd think that was the ~intent~ of the Arc missions. But in honestly had to know they coudn't let the 8 hours to level 50 remain. You had to see that kind of XP inflation would not remain.

It's a reality that the goal of the developers is not to take away your 'fun' but to maximize fun for all people. I didn't have fun when I was grouped with a regen scrapper who was soloing maps designed for our entire team, even on the hardest difficulty. So where your fun got nerfed mine got buffed.

It's just too bad that you couldn't have fun with me...

Btw: Can I have your stuff?

[ QUOTE ]
According to the FAQ on coh.com, you click on the character in question and will see an option to remove him from the custom group you've created. That doesn't happen with me. I can see no way to remove a character from a custom group.

Any ideas?

[/ QUOTE ]

Every critter has to exist in at least one group. If that critter only exists in the group you want to remove it from you can:

a) delete the critter

b) Put it into a different group.

I have a group I use JUST for special bosses and the like called "Mercenaries". When I need to move someone out of a group (usually to check for file space savings) I put them in that group. that removes them from my custom group and I don't have to delete them.

Example:

Army of One features members of the Bald Eagle Brigade (think GI Joe but without the copyright violation). I wanted to see if I'd save some space so I took one of the bosses I had made, and on her info screen changed it from Bald Eagle Brigade to Mercenary. That removed her from the BEB group but did not make me delete the character.

Mr. O

Okay so I've got two arcs up now and I feel like I've done some pretty good work. Part of me wants to work on a third, and part of me figures "meh... let's take it easy for a bit and go back to leveling while those two brew for a bit".

So here's what I'm learning at:

I'd be willing to use my 3rd slot to post a custom mission for SG's and Individuals. SG's get priority because I can put multiple nemisises in the arc. You tell me about your heroes, and what you stand for, and who the contact should be, and I'll put a week's work in on a custom story arc just for you guys to thwart your nemisises.

Now to be realistic, unless you all tell me specifically all about these bad guys and what they do and why they do it, you'll get ~my~ vission of who might stand against you, and it will only be posted for a week at a time, maybe a bit more as I only ahve 1 slot open for this, and I'd like the tickets that come with the work. And a little noteriety.

So... would there be interest in this?

Here's the thing: So much has changed in CoX since it was released that it's nearly impossible for them to have put out a complete documentation guide that encompasses it all. If you look at other games, you will find that as the game goes on for 2, 3, 5 years, rules change. Sadly the standard remains that it is up to the player to stay abreast of the rules.

That said, I got a big "hey, you all need to know this" when I logged in last week. Something about veteran awards. They could have very easily created a similar popup to say "hey, you all need to go to the forum and look at the rules changes to AE missions".

As for sussing out the Mission specifics, welcome MMO's. For many the discovering of the rules is part of the fun....

[ QUOTE ]
So my current favorite suggestion is to SK the whole team up to the highest level character minus one (i.e. follow the normal "SK" rules but apply to the whole team, automatically).


[/ QUOTE ]

My problem is that I don't want to artificially inflate the level requirements for my story based arcs but at the same time I don't want to spend an hour building a group to run them. The one I just published last night is a level 20-54, but I only have one character below 20 that would auto level up to it. So that means I either focus on recruiting teens for it, or I play the "who's gonna SK me?" game.

And sadly I can't easily tweek the villian groups to make it work either. My main stock villain group (5th column) has critters that go from 25-54 or 1-20 or 20-25, but none say 35-54.

Grr.. Argh.

[ QUOTE ]
I have had this happen also, but not just with bank maps. Are you playing the new edited mission right after you publish it? I have found if I don't wait a couple mins after I edit and save this will happen to me too. Even if I see the message that the mission was updated.

[/ QUOTE ]

I had just finished editing the local copy, and went to do the 'offical' publish as I typed in the last bit of flavor text.

And what rubs me is that the bank was the 'perfect' map. The mission had perfect flow and I did test the mission a few times... though with one less boss. I wonder if I dump that second boss if I can get it to publish with that map...

Of course with the warehouse I can probably find a better warehouse and add some more hostages to rescue....

Still..

[ QUOTE ]
One other thing to keep in mind. When you are editing characters in a published arc any other person playing your arc and trying to load a mission with those custom characters will crash to the desktop.

Uh, what? Anything you do isn't supposed to have any effect on people already playing your mission -- everything should be loaded for them already.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's probably a case of 'they load mission A, you start to edit custom mobs that appear in A and B, and when they start to load mission B the system poops'.

Just a theory

So I was just putting the final touches on "Little Girls Don't Pla Soldier" last night and when I hit the publish button nothing happened. I took out a few custom mobs (the lat map is all custom critters), and that didn't do it.

Then I swapped out the bank I have in mission 4 for a warehouse and presto, it published.

Is there a known issue with using the banks hero side? Now I tested the mission and it ran fine. I had no errors, and as near as I can tell I wasn't over on any of the detail limits. The map was one of the 4 that allow for two floor collections, and in it I put 2 Floor collection, 2 bosses, one patrol and one ambush. As far as I recall, the map allowed for all of those.

I'm not a fan of the warehouse so far. The two collections when I tested it last night spawned in the hallway half way through the mission, and I don't care for the flow in a warehouse compared to a bank.

Did I miss a known issue?

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
b) Put them in their own seperate "boss group".

[/ QUOTE ]

Note that with Issue 15, this will no longer be necessary, since you'll have the option of making sure your bosses don't spawn unless you actually place them.

[/ QUOTE ]

In the words of The Kilkelly Kid (featured in American Welcome):

SQUEEEEE!!!!!

[ QUOTE ]
I so often play really enjoyable story-focused arcs which grip me and have me smiling all the way through, and then, in the last mission, out comes an EB who I cant solo.

Is the MA capable of making an arc thats a challenge for a team and also a challenge solo, but beatable by both?

I design myarcs for solo players, and i state that clearly in the descriptions.

Does anyone who has experience with setting their arcs for both teams and solo have any comments?

Eco.

[/ QUOTE ]

For American Welcome I had an EB at the end but I also gave the player 3 boss level allies to help them get there. Based on some feedback I rolled them down to LT's but my worry now is that the end boss isn't solo-able anymore.

Here's the thing:

Let's say you make a group and populate it with minions, Lt's and bosses. Then you want an official "end boss" who looks unique compared to the other bosses in your villan group. If you put him in that group and make him a boss, then he might spawn earlier, or even several times, in the mission. So your choices are:

a) Make them an elite boss, thus they only spawn in the climactic final battle

b) Put them in their own seperate "boss group".

I think that most people go with the EB option because it's easier to organize and it's one less custom group to keep track of. However I think that either option is viable, and in my case I also knew that the player should have at least one ally by the time they reached the final boss. I'll have to retest it on solo to be sure it's do-able.

Mr. O

[ QUOTE ]


I was thinking about that. One of the things I love about the AE is the auto-level range... not having to worry about SK's is fantastic.


[/ QUOTE ]

That's sort of true. If you set it so that everyone is kicked up to level 50 or some other high level, but if you build it for level 30ish, then you'll only auto SK to 30 while everyone above that will either have to RSK down, or be playing the SK game again.

I would really like to see it auto SK eveyrone to the mission holder level rather than playing that game.

[ QUOTE ]


Instead - make ratings public - show who voted! It might give some backlash with a genuine bad review I know, but it'll keep people honest at least, and draw more comments along with the votes to avoid revenge-voting (which will also be obvious), and add "%-completed" tag to each vote/comment in that log too for much needed detail, so we know where people got so tired they just voted and moved on (or if they tried at all).

[/ QUOTE ]

You're on the front page with a 5 star rating. I play your arc and honestly feel it's a 3. I tried to really like it but I couldn't. It was just too flat. So I give it a 3.

Then suddenly I've got a bunch of 0's on my arcs. yes they might have your name, but what's to stop you saying "well.. I thought they REALLY sucked!"? And who wants to have GM's running around investigating every instance of questionable rating? They work hard enough with EULA violations and arc content to not have to investigate who griefed who with a rating.

[ QUOTE ]

I find more funny that "all the good names are taken" as the reason given to abandon Freedom or Virtue. I rarely have issues with names I want being already taken and it isn't hard to come up with alternatives. Use a thesaurus, go to naming sites (google to find ones like seventh sanctum's hero name generator, babynames.com is also one I use a lot), use translators for different languages. Just some quick ideas.

[/ QUOTE ]

I also think we are far enough along that using punctation to help with a name you want isn't quite the black eye it used to be. The game's 5 years out with lots and lots of orphaned accounts. I don't get the least upset when I see a name with a period in it anymore because at this point... well...

But then again I could be the minority there.

Got my first official review:
Parkin's Review = 4 Stars!

Made some updates based on his suggestions too.

Thanks for the review!

Per your recommendation I made some changes to the allies in mission 5 to be Lt's though I may up their power base a bit from standard to Hard. I'd had some complaints about the escort in another mission being too hard because the escortee tended to get gacked so I'm leaving that.

I'll keep tweaking the text around the contact, Mr. Dodge. Honestly I never really thought much about the contacts beyond that they were there to give out a mission but now that I think on it, he really does need some story beyond the basics.

Thank you for the review and I'm glad you had a good time with it!

/e hustles off to work on next arc, and watch for that word of the week.

Mr. O

[ QUOTE ]

I sincerely feel the arc was judged unfairly because of your lack of knowledge with the subject matter. It is one thing if the arc was truly problematic, but totally another when the ratings were based on incorrect assumptions.

WN


[/ QUOTE ]

I've played another Disco arc but I'm pretty sure this is a different one, so take this with a grain of salt.

What's the difference between downgrading an arc because you don't get the cultural references and downgrading it because you don't know the writer's Supergroup and all the injokes there? Whenever you write for a niche, you're either going to work to ensure that the common person understands it, or you're going to endure reviews from people who 'just don't get it'.

I'm working on the second draft of a novel that takes place at a Fantasy/ Sci Fi convention. It's overloaded with jokes about con's and about fandoms. But I know going in that I'm unlikely to be published, and if I do that it's unlikely to sell well because it's niche and I can't unniche it without gutting the story to explain every single joke.

It's part of the compromise I have to make as a writer.

And it's possible that Death to Disco might be in the same group.

[ QUOTE ]


Q-Why so short a time?

A-My wife is due sometime in the next week or so, after which point I'm gonna be off line for a while, so I want to get this on the go.



[/ QUOTE ]

Totally off topic:

Yeah... about 18 years off line.

Seriously man, congrats!