NukeTheLag

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(And no, I'm not using "random minion," "random lieutenant," "random boss." I'm choosing specific standard enemies. The randoms have even more of a disappearing problem. The level range of my mission is limited to that of the standard enemies I'm trying to use.)

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I was having the same problem. The only thing I could figure out was to add an ambush or patrol at the same level of the standard critters that kept disappearing from my custom group.

Arc Name: The Freaky Past
Arc ID: 94396
Faction: Rikti, Crey, Freaks, PPD, Custom Group
Author: @Xort
Difficulty Level: Contains some AV/EBs, but should be soloable on heroic with inspirations
Recommended Team Size: Any
Typical duration: 1 hour.
Arc Synopsis: After a Portal Corp. mission, you arrive back home to find the world conquered by the Rikti. To prevent this you must travel back in time. Along the way you become the unlikely ally to an old enemy.

Yup, the ticket drop is mildly better, but nowhere near soloing or running a normal TF.

That I could handle as I enjoy teaming. What I cannot handle is the numerous crashes or the bug that sends half the team to a clone of the same map. I hate to say it but teaming is not fixed. Of course, I haven't seen what they worked on during today's downtime and I would think this would be top priority.

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I have a question on custom groups, I'm trying to get the level range between lvl 20 and lvl. 30 and have added the appropriate leveled standard enemies to the list, but they do not spawn in testing and my custom enemies come in at lvl. 50 which I don't want. Do I need to go in and edit the standard foes or something?

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I seem to be having the same problem. I have a small custom group with one custom Lt. and one custom boss. I have added four select standard minions in around the 20-26 range. (Just using any random minion in this range would mess up the story). When I ran this mish a couple of days ago, everything worked fine. But now I get nothing but Lts. and Bosses. I'm wondering if there is some sort of bug because this seemed to work at first.

75% of the ratings are pure bunk.

First, there's the griefers, badge farmers and petty revenge types, (Still mad at someone over that Bank Mission PuG from 2007? Now's your chance to get even I suppose). Second there's their counterparts -- people in cahoots to give each other good ratings. Finally there's the people who knock down an arc because of some bug that the author had no control over.

Even with the remaining 25%, there's simply no way to get a consensus on what is a good arc.

Some people want the ultimate deathmatch against AVs that spawn amushes of AVs which hit so hard that your computer crashes. Other people want a good story. For the former, they'll rate an arc low because its "too wordy." For the latter, they'll complain its "too hard."

Right now the ratings system is like polling what people think of a hip-hop album when half the voters only like country music.

This is definitely an arc that you want to take the time to read all the text. I also found the custom groups and bosses to be a solid challenge, but not over the top. I would really recommend this as one of the first arcs people should run when trying out MA. It really sets the bar on what can be done with it.

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As to the issue of a "test group" mode, while it came up in closed beta that testers should have a way to spawn a map for any number of players on the team to see what it looks like, it would be impractical to actually program a literal AI controlled group to test a mission given the limits of the critter AI.

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I'm not sure if I'm following you. Why would it be impractical to simply tell the system to spawn for 8 instead of 1? They're essentially doing this nowadays prevent softloading TFs. At least for testing purposes, this would give you a ballpark estimate of how the mission performs as team size varies.

I'm not that critical. I think the MA is off to a good start. The only glaring omission I see is that there's no arena mode where you can test a critter without having to design a mission.

Why did I open that picture during lunch?

Some people will drive around the parking lot for 10 minutes to save 2 minutes of walking. Never made sense to me.

Airman's way is the definitely fastest, and the TF can easily be done in under 15 minutes that way. But any team can do this in 30 mins. I've seen it with no defuffers, 7 melees + a defender, 4 tanks + 4 blasters, what have you. I'd rather just grab what's available and do it in 25 minutes, then spend 20 minutes putting together the "perfect" team. Do the math. As far as I'm concerned, time spent building the team counts too.

That was a great guide. I don't know why PuGs have such a bad rap (at least above lvl 20). They're a great way to get a feel for some of the other ATs and add some variety to the game. The only thing I'd add as far as keeping the team moving is that on the longer ones a lot of peeps appreciate it if there is a 15 minute break taken around the halfway point so everyone can do some extended selling/crafting or take a RT break.

I find that there's a paradox when it comes to estimating PuG task force time. When you have a team of people honestly willing to commit to say 6 hours to do Positron, you end up with great players and as a result it only takes 3 hours. But when you get a bunch of people expecting to do it in 3 hours, that's when it always ends up taking 6 hours (assuming it doesn't fall apart at Rollister). Anyone else have this sense?