Paula

I wanted to post up a notice that there have been more tweaks to make it even more accessible to players, including a new title and description! This is all thanks to the fabulous feedback people have been giving me.

NOTE: You will now be exemped no lower than level 40! Thanks, feedbackers!
[ QUOTE ]

15+ Minute TUTORIAL - Knowledge Is Power: Architect Entertainment & YOU!
----------------------------------------------------------------
S.E.R.V.E. wants YOU to get the best of AE in the most ridiculous way. Learn and earn all the player badges! See secrets of Mission Architect even some experts don't know! * "Wonderfully done" "Should be required playing" "Literally just choked me I was laughing so hard!" [SOMA LBMA HFMA SFMA Lite]


[/ QUOTE ]

I don't have a problem with shorts getting more playthroughs, because that's one of the great things in AE - don't have a lot of time at once? Do a quickie! (And I've been slammed for free time for a month, so that has huge sympathies with me.)

And I'm already likely to make an arc that's only as long as it needs to be, because it's so hard to make something that paces well for everybody, and I personally would otherwise err on the side of too long. (I mean, take a look at that sentence, for example!)

I do wish that there was a better way to designate Short/Med/Long, as I was looking around for a couple quickies to do this morning before heading out, and in general they're longer to play than my shortest arc, which is "Medium" because it uses three tiny maps.

I've been a writer and an editor and blink/cringe at typos. Especially my own. Especially when pointed out to me post-production.

That said, I've also been a teacher, and that's the side of me that comes out more often. (Hence me pouring soooo much of myself into a short Tutorial hoping it helps players have fun learning a thing or two.) This means that I give a huge amount of slack to people who are putting some effort into their grammar and spelling. I'll let them know what they can fix, but I don't really penalize for a few mistakes like that when evaluating their arcs.

I guess I'll tend to err on putting focus on the positive & potential, while overlooking the rough edges. This is especially true in grammar. I personally feel this brings me more joy.

I really like the idea of community input, but the way it's turned out, it's not really helping us find great arcs. Two things contribute to this: The search function doesn't let us sort by # of Ratings, and 0-star griefer votes require 9 5-star votes to keep an arc at the 4.5 star breakpoint.

This means that people try to find good arcs only by searching for 5 stars (or if they're familiar with the flaws in the system, 4 stars). The problem with that is the grief-votes keep 5-stars off the top, and I think other creators can support me in saying that once that 5-star visual rating drops, so does the rate of "random players".

I've had a hard time getting Real Life to let me spend more time reviewing and working with the support community here, so I also haven't been able to spread much word about the Tutorial Arc I created to help out other players. Luckily, a few helpful players got some more word out for me, and one weekend the Tutorial got back up to a 5-star visual. In one day, over 150 players rated the arc... but enough "grief" votes came in to knock it back down to 4. Since then, I've had maybe a dozen a week, many of them people I've been able to play/rate theirs.

It's not that I must collect all stars, here, that got me thinking about this. It's that I've got a 20% rate of people giving me feedback, and nearly all of it is grateful for the help. This makes me want to help more people find the arc so they can play it. But the people who need the help the most won't be on the forums... they'll be looking in the game. How can I try to help get my rating up so people can find it using the current system, when it merely being at a 5-star point just invites the griefers to knock it down?

Personally, I'm mourning @Muu's loss (again) of Hall of Fame status... I'm rambling. But I wish I had a better solution than what we have.

Horror to Puzzles/Riddles

I have had to split up the list in order to post a revision, otherwise, I get an error. This is now in two parts.

Horror
--------
Astoria in D Minor (41565) -- Heroic
Dark Dreams (3615)
D!E COUNT DADDY MACULA D!E! (10619) -- Heroic (1970's Action/Horror)
Don't Play With The Dead (31813) -- Neutral
The Amulet of J'gara (1709) -- Heroic
Project: Perilous - Into the Chthonian Pit (#3586) - Neutral (Unless you happen to be a mad cultist, in which case, go nuts!)
Small Fears -- Heroic
Lights, Camera, Scream! (#68627) - 3 Mission arc that get's you into the B-Horror film circuit.
Duality --Heroic -- 84105
Hunting the Hunters --Villainous -- 93362 - Help a vampire find out who is hunting his people
Creepy Crawlers - Arc ID: 82553 (Lv 41 - 52, a short, solo-friendly ghost story. Best played alone.)
I Will Dance On Your Grave - Arc ID 92630 – Any level, no EBs or AVs, Voodoo, Necromancy
Movie Monster Madness.. - 102058
Something Comes to Yarmouth(58812) - Heroic, levels 25+ (masearch link)
*
The Zombie Apocalypse Task Force: Something wicked this way comes.


Large-Scale Crisis
--------
Alpha and Omega (60015) -- Heroic
Is it Live or is it Memory-X - Arc ID #70210 - Heroic
This Is War, Part I - the Revenge of Hro'Dtohz -- Neutral
Win the Past, Own the Future - Heroic
A Warrior's Friend - Heroic
The Clockwork War -- Heroic (18672)
Flight of the Valkyries - Precursor (20272) -- Neutral
War of the Worlds - The Anakim Invasion - Part 1, Neutral (15006)
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....ue#Post13304513
War of the Worlds - The Anakim Invasion - Part 2, The Terran Revolt, Neutral (46711)
url=http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=13304455&an=0&am p;page=0#Post13304455
Bleed the Freak - Arc ID #6919 - Heroic
The All-Seeing Eye - Arc ID #57352 - Heroic [SFMA, Soloable, No EB/AVs, Auto-SK to 30/41)
*

Magic
--------
The Magical Miss Fitz (5079) -- Heroic
Chains of Blood (5492) -- Heroic
A Deal with Destiny -- Heroic
The Broken Chain (82378) -- heroic
Croatoa's Great War: The Parfait Family Reunion -- Neutral -- 71880
Rex is Missing! - Heroic - 51702
The Tannhäuser Gate (Arc 96322)
I Will Dance On Your Grave - Arc ID 92630 – Any level, no EBs or AVs, Voodoo, Necromancy
*

Military
--------
Redoubt Operations #1: Fires over Kalago -- Heroic
Red Typhoon (Arc 4912) -- Heroic
Whitehawks (Arc 49364) -- Heroic
Axis and Allies -- Villainous (1379)
Vanguard AQUA (58475) -- Neutral
Wings of Deception, 101926
*

Misc. Adventure
--------
Impossible Kung Fu Mission -- Nuetral (111367)
The Portal Bandits (3326) -- Heroic
A Glitch in the Wyre- Arc 73197-- Neutral (Fun for both the good kids and the bad kids too!)
The Council Cargo - Arc ID: 36951 (Heroic, Lv 26 - 31, solo or team)
Hero Therapy! (TM) - 119228



Mystery
--------
Blowback (18575) -- Heroic
Dream Paper -- Heroic (13030)
Dream Paper 2: Restless Sleep -- Heroic (16797)
Dream Paper 3: Broken Dreams -- Heroic (13064)
Hunter of Beasts: It begins with a riot... Arc ID: 110465 - Heroic
Females for Hire - Neutral (Heroic and/or Mercenary motivations) (110723)
*

Mythology
--------
Atlantis Attacks! -- Neutral (30898) -- Click for Promotional Poster
The Seelie War -- Heroic
The Unseelie War -- Villainous
[b] The Seeds of Yggdrasil[b/] -- heroic
Tales of Cimerora, volume 1 : Of feathers and fur -- Heroic
The Aegis Affair - Heroic - **** - 16376
Witches and Warriors (53006)- Heroic
Rites of the Maenads (61159) - Heroic
The Parable of the Fruit Salad -- Heroic -- 65369
The Eye of Balor (88176) - Heroic
Madness And The Minotaur - Neutral - 90124
*

Nemesis Plots
--------
Brass Reaver: Part 1 -- Neutral
The Handbag Plot -- Heroicish -- 36414
Rise and Fall of the Iron General -- Heroic -- 142200
*

Player-Chosen Outcome
--------
Hunting the Dark Dragon -- Heroic
Playing Gods -- Heroic (51106)
Time's Maelstrom -- Heroic #147296
*

Sci-Fi
--------
Above Mars - Part 1: The Wellington -- Neutral (13215)
Adventures of the Space Marines -- Neutral
Adventures of the Space Marines 2 -- Neutral
The Adventures of the United Earth Rangers -- Neutral (29549)
The Continuing Adventures of the United Earth Rangers -- Neutral (70237)
The Final Nemesis
The Knights of Rularuu -- Heroic (75386)
[color= #bbff88]Reach for the Stars -- Neutral (78904) [/color]
Spaced Invaders --Heroic(56856)
That Mysterious Buzzing Sound - 12774
The Balance of Power - 26931 - Neutral
welcome to donut world - 1233 heroic
*

Un-themed Survival/AV/Time Challenges
--------
The Meatgrinder -- Neutral
*

Puzzles/Riddles
--------
Grim Riddles (#1396) - Heroic
*

AE System to Holiday

I have had to split up the list in order to post a revision, otherwise, I get an error. This is now in two parts.

AE System
--------
[url=http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=13315151]Mission Architect Playable Tutorial - 28470
Welcome to Architect Entertainment -- Neutral
Death for Dollars! -- Neutral
Bare Knuckles of Rage (9304)
Signal to Noise -- Neutral -- 67277
*

Allegory
---------
Who is Kidnapping the World's Great Philosophers? -- Neutral -- 86347
*

Character/Supergroup Origins
--------
Birth of a Fossil -- Heroic
Secret Origins(Tech) The Snake Women of Epsilon V (42221) - Heroic
Noah Reborn -- Heroic (2370)
Polar Emergence Neutral Government User Interface Network (PENGUIN) #29205 - Heroic
Jumping in Feet First - Heroic - 1345
Midnight Bells Toll ----Villanious
A Hero is made, Not Born. -- Heroic -- Arc# 20863
A Mother's Nightmare -- Heroic -- #6955
*
A Rose's Thorns -- Heroic -- 113224


Classic Super-Hero/Super-Villain
--------
THE BOMBER --- Heroic --- Arc 16607
In The Shadow of Statesman --Neutral--1160
A Show to Die For! --- Heroic --- 30645
Check... and Mate #15095 - Heroic - Mini Task Force
Teen Phalanx Forever! -- Heroic (67335)
This Life Immortal - (5756) Heroic
Paradox Paradox - (69221) Heroic Stop yourself and Stellar from being erased!
Sidekicks Can Be A Pain In The Cape - (28430)
'Tis Nobler in the Mind - Heroic
Deadly Sins! - 99366: fairly tough arc, can be solo'd.
Marketing Opportunity - Villainous - 83747
To Save A Single World - Heroic - 83744
*


Comedy
--------
The String Thief, Arc ID: 15726 Neutral 1-54
Mean People, Arc ID:16690 Neutral 1-54
The Extadine Lab -- Heroic (2595)
MacGuffin Delivery Service (1567) -- Villainous
ParaCon -- Heroic (1684)
The new and improved Lord Recluse Strike Force -- Villainous (though I wouldn't recommend against a hero )
The Fire Bunnies - Neutral, They are only bunnies after all...
You Say It's Your Birthday! (3630) - Neutral
Trademark Infringement -- Heroic (2220)
Hail to the King Neutral (34640)
Walk On the Wild Side - Neutral - 3580
Shirley You Jest (25474) -- Neutral
The Invasion of the Bikini Clad Samurai Vampiresses from Outer Space! - Heroic - 61013
Gnomish Madness (30204) - Heroic
Doctor Nadir and the Hellion Heist (49661) - Heroic
Laugh? I Thought I'd DIE! - Heroic
The P.U.G. Strike force (arc 35585) -Villian
A Translator is the Wind or the Thunder in Turns -- (2936) - Heroic
What's in a Name? - Villainous
None More Black, Dude! (#86312) Neutral
Rise of the Drakule - Neutral
Return of the Revenge of the Son of Drakule Part 2: First Blood - Neutral
Martian Chimpanzees and the Cyborg Cheerleaders of DOOM! (Arc #69947) - Heroic
Daytime Divas - #94504 Where else can you get a hair extension as a souvenir?
Death to Disco! - (Neutral, 84420) A short arc that has time travel, silk shirts, platform shoes, Jimmy Carter and a chance to save Rock and Roll.
Too Many Bunnygirls! - ID#101165(neutral). Time to stop them once and for all.
Invasion on Earth BX1132! - Neutral - 45+ - #98943
Ee=Ai-Ee-Ai-Oh! - Neutral - 3662
The foul-mouthed Handyman! - Neutral - 1076
City of Norms - Neutral - 132944
Killing The Meow Farm - 141625 - Neutral
Shortbow - Arc ID: 143566 - Heroic Lvl: 30-38
*
Comedy/Drama
--------
Kidnapping an Idol 136188 Neutral
Fashion Apocalypse - Neutral - 14840
The Running of the Bulls -- Heroic 29973
A Super Team is Born -- Heroic
Cause of How Some Silly Stealed My Wings #1481 -- Neutral
How to Survive a Robot Uprising -- Heroic (12669)
Dr. Duplicate's Dastardly Dare -- Neutral
It's a Nice Day for a White Wedding (9059) -- Neutral
TURG FICTION: Ghost in the Machine, Act I - Heroic (althoughs romantic villains could try this too )
Rum Runners of Bloody Bay (3691) - Heroic
Have a Blap, Blap, Blappy Day Kids! (2019)
The Toypocalypse! (49280) - Heroic
Fishing for Fame with Red Herring - Heroic (66861)
Putting Out Fires: A Corporate Satire (20100) - Villainous
The Rise and Refall of Pets'n'Things.com - Heroic - 1061
The Cat's in the Cradle (8776) - Villainous
Females for Hire - Neutral (Heroic and/or Mercenary motivations) (110723)
*

Crime/Gangs
--------
Bricked Electronics -- Heroic (LIVE! 2180)
The Bravuran Jobs -- Villainous (16809)
The Black Flag Is On The Rise (Pirates!) - Villainous
The Monstrous Regiment of Lesbian Hellions -- Heroic (27178)
Win the 2009 Freak-Lympics (2150) - Villainous
Ninja Crimewave! (2142) - Heroic
Whitehawks (Arc 49364) -- Heroic
The Internet is for Crime (53385) - Villains
Plastic Pistol Peril (1135) - Heroic
Friends in Need (Of Body Parts) - Villainous (31005)
A Little RnR - Heroic (17523) click for Promotional Poster
Mechanical Mayhem - Villainous (76721)
Females for Hire (about a mercenary gang) - Neutral (Heroic and/or Mercenary motivations) (110723)
Battlin' Tom's Murder Extravaganza! -- Villainous -- 99803
*

Drama
--------
The Conciliators: Simone -- Heroic (4010)
The Fan Club -- Heroic
Matchstick Women -- Heroic -- 3369
Of Mentors and Legacy - Heroic - 1589
Digital Love -- Neutral -- 3571
A Flame the Burns Bright- 112548
Clonus, Parts 1 & 2 - Arc ID: 21499 - Heroic Lvl 30-54
*

Global Domination
--------
Axis and Allies -- Villainous (1379)
*

Global Destruction
--------
The Twilight of this Blue Orb -- Villainous (98529)
*

Heist
--------
Celebrity Kidnapping -- Villainous (1388)
Easy Money -- Villainous (31490)
The Great Diamond Heist -- Villainous (96169)
*

Historical (Realistic)
--------
Wrinkle in Time -- Heroic(68920)
*

Historical (CoH Lore)
--------
The War on Superadine - The Regulators in their 1980's drug war (Heroic) (Arc 7959)
Origins - Volume 1 (57077) -- Heroic
The Once and Future King (#71601) - Heroic
*

Holiday
--------
City of Ho Ho Ho #18775 - Heroic
Hectic Holidays -- Heroic (36999) also comedy
Santa's Missing List - 34961
Santa's Workshop of Misfit Toys - heroic - 134140
*

... unfortunately, I actually had a similar thought! I thought it was just me!

Hee, I'd say that means you left only easily-correctable typos!

After sending you three tells (yikes, sorry), I realized I should have left feedback here!

So! Quick summary of my comments on The Amulet of J'gara #1709 since I ain't great at long reviews:

Things I specifically love:
* Great use of clues reminding what characters said.
* Great use of color where you could squeeze it in.
* Perfect maps in length and setting.
* 4 missions of perfect rhythm.
* Love the custom 'nightmare' mobs.

Things that didn't quite work for me:
* The editor has chopped off your Mission Intro text for Mission 3. That's happened to me before in doing an edit!
* The souvenir presumes my character will be haunted by fearful nightmares. That happens to be wholly not true for the character I ended up running through it. Could you reword it to refer to the memory of her nightmarish assault without stating the player has recurring nightmares, and/or is scared? As it is, I just deleted it cause it doesn't fit...
* The transition of the end of Mission 3 and going into Mission 4 I think was a bit abrupt. I'm trying to think of a concrete suggestion, though -- Maybe something more of a parody of a real closer, "Congratulations, you've won. You can rest now with your victory, go have a beer" sort of thing, and then with the 4th mission intro, the diabolic laughter and new voice congratulating the player for figuring out something was wrong, she thought they'd die in ignorance while she devoured their souls whole, that sort of thing.

Quite muchly a 5-star for me. If you do change the souvenir, please let me know so I can run it again and pick it up!

* You can't mark a waypoint on the Nav Bar showing where a boss is. (Important for when they spawn upon completion of another objective.)

That one right there would make a couple of my missions a LOT easier. As it is, I'm turning one into an ambush, and trying to sort out how to work the other one.

Oooh, can't edit my original post anymore. Revision:

HALL OF FAME
These DO award tickets.

Thank you muchly!!

I just finished learning how to record, edit, etc etc to make a "newsbreak" trailer for this.

(Trailer) Paragon Globe Newsbreak #28470 - Architect Entertainment Playable Tutorial

With the sarcasm tags, I actually found that funny...!

(And thanks for the sarcasm tags... I tend to run snarky so I presume other people are intending humor where sometimes they're not...)

As it is, I'm very curious to watch how "differences in rating standards" and "herd mentality" will play out in the 4 vs 5 ratings, etc., over time...

You know, that's both a creepy and a possibly really freaking cool idea. Well, until everybody does it for no good story backup. :\

Select the text in the editor, and right-click on the text you selected. The options will pop up there!

Check out the tutorial in my sig for a list of quick tips on other neato things in MA! (That's not just a shameless plug, feedback is that it really does help for little time/effort investment! )

Yikes... this means I think I gave someone 0 stars. Unfortunately, I don't remember which one and you can't just search "Missions I have ranked" that I can see!

If you've gone through all of your custom characters (if any) and then through all of the text boxes/options in your mission, and saved/republished it all... Time for a support ticket.

I just wanted to say that was one of the most constructive and thoughtful conversation on different approaches to criticism I have seen in a very long time. THANK you all!

And I've decided to keep sending my thank you's. Now hopefully I've gotten my bug fixes and can work through my backlog of "return the favor playthroughs..."!

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be an option at this time.

I just had this happen with one of mine. I loaded it, went through all the text boxes and settings, no errors. I went through all of the custom mobs (including 'continue' at the end to re-save them), no errors. Reloaded my mission, no errors. Republished. Still had the orange ? on the browser screen.

I also did some other editing while I was there, but the ? didn't go away until I did a search for 1481 and clicked on Browse, My Creations, back-and-forth-etc. I think the fact the ? didn't go away right away is because the Browser seems to read only from a cache until something makes it reload.

It could be that all I had to do is reload it and republish to correct whatever settings went wrong...

Thanks again for the perspective check, Decorum. I was just about to say "Yeah, anonymity would... uh... wait..." :\

I just tried some testing on this, and I agree. I don't think it counts as a vote.

Thank you for the comments! Also, a big thank you to all of the feedback I've gotten. There's been a couple small improvements, and another couple of tips are on the way as soon as I get a better consensus feel on the best guidelines to put into them.

The boss won't ambush the player, it will spawn in a random location based on where the Front, Middle or Back locations are on that map. (Also, depending on whether you choose Front, Middle, Back or Any.)

You can set an Ambush to be triggered by the complestion of another objective, but you could only put a boss in it if you create a Custom Group and put only the Boss in it... the detriment being that on some difficulty levels there might be more than one of the Boss I think...? (Wouldn't happen for an EB I imagine, but I've seen more than one Boss in a group.)

I'm so glad it worked out so well!

I just have to say that's the awesomest use of the MA system I've ever seen. Now I have plans if I can ever get my nephew into the game....! Thanks for posting this!!

As soon as you write the text, test the missions through a few times! The lines are sometimes talked over each other when objectives spawn too close to each other (try using a variety of Front/Middle/Back).

Also, when there is Inactive Text and Active Text, right now all four lines tend to pop up all at once, even if the player is nowhere near them. Until that's fixed, write the "Active" text to work whether the player sees them or not.

Example - Cause of How Some Silly Stealed My Wings has a Battle "Inactive/Active" text objective right when you enter the first mission, so you can see very quickly what I'm talking about.