Saturday

As a bot MM I would love to be more of a scavenger - Rikti drones for my battle drones, Council metal men for my protectors and so on.

Took this with my bot/forcefield MM and just discovered that while it's a Resist damage power it only takes Defense IO sets. Which is annoying as I'd just spent about 6mil making some IO's for it.

(Note: It takes normal resistance IO's, just not any resistance sets)

Is this bug known and is there an ETA on a fix?

I'm trying to add a "rescue ally" to my mission. For some reason when I select custom it doesn't list all my custom groups. However If I want to put in a boss fight it lists them all. It's very annoying and i can't work out why some of my custom groups show and others don't.

Any suggestions?

Family stuff has put a slowdown on my plans but I should get to run more story arcs over the weekend.

Cheers your feedback was awesome. I've made loads of small changes in response and I think its good to go now.

This was a lot of fun. A solid 4star. Looking forward to your next one

Needs work on the mission text. You tend to have sentences run on too long without a comma or full stop to break them up. You should also try speaking out loud what you have people saying, I think you’ll find it sounds stilted and unnatural.

Example:
Well there seems to be a disturbance in my town there has been a rather large increase in criminal activity in my town as of late.

You need to either break this into two sentences
Well there seems to be a disturbance in my town. There has been a rather large increase in criminal activity {in my town} as of late.

Or
Well there seems to be a disturbance in my town, there has been a rather large increase in criminal activity {in my town} as of late.

In both cases you should remove the redundant in my town bit.

Using different fonts and colours can make your mission descriptions much more interesting to read (when you’re editing just right click and select them)

Try using the mission pop ups as you enter a map. It’s not essential but it's one of the simplest and easiest tools for setting the scene.

Plot: Is this meant to be set in the past? If so then you need something to indicate that in the opening mission text (something as simple as "It’s the year 1234AD and the sun is just setting over your simple town as you arrive to meet your good friend Ivan". Also try using maps that don't have glaring anachronisms like war walls. However I accept that sometimes you have no choice due to the limitations of the game maps.

Rouge knights are not what you think they are. Perhaps you meant rogue knights? And in the second mission did I really need to find a clue that “someone come in the cave?” Eww. Maybe work on that one abit.

I’m afraid I didn’t play past the second mission. I rated it 2 stars.

Review: Matchstick Women (ID 3369)
Author: Bubbawhea

Presentation: No typos or grammatical mistakes that I noticed. Mission intro and exit dialogs were clear and easy to read (if a bit odd!). Can’t ask for more.

Content: I have mixed feelings on this. The plot was interesting but not very coherent. The missions were a mixed bunch. The use of objects and emotes was excellent in the first two, and I was engaged with the mystery. However I really didn’t like the third mission. Encountering the authors own characters as jokes fell very flat and killed the atmosphere. Added to the fact it took me ages to find the last boss and I can honestly say I just didn’t enjoy this one at all – and considering it took as long to finish this one map and the other three it really reduced my overall enjoyment.
In the last mission I thought that having an actual demon appear kind of took away from the story.

Difficulty: I soloed this with little trouble with Jed the Dead, my level 14 scrapper.

Overall: A good attempt at showing the potential human tragedy behind the normal coh adventures. It has it flaws but I was glad I played it.

Result: 3.5 Stars (rounded to 4 in the MA)

Review: The Portal Bandits (ID# 3326)
Author: Lazerus

Presentation: No typos or grammatical mistakes that I noticed. Mission intro and exit dialogs were clear and easy to read. Can’t ask for more.

Content: This was a enjoyable and lightheaded little adventure. The plot held together and the missions were varied and made good use of the maps. The sheer variety of the custom enemies made target selection a bit difficult (some type of mob was very good at hurting my brute, but I never worked out which one it was). I wish there had been a bit more information on the enemy but I guess that’s what the sequels will go into.
The second mission really did a good job of making me feel like I’d been suckered into an ambush and I was quite relieved when I reached the exit door. Good job.
The last mission dragged on a bit, that map is very large and it’s hard to avoid the incidental fights. Maybe some more events to break it up a bit would help. Still it’s a minor complaint and perhaps another day I’d have been fine with it.

Difficulty: I soloed this with Adov Atomika, my lvl50 brute. Some of the mobs gave me a run for my money.

Overall: A good story, I had fun.

Result: 4 Stars

Review: Tales of Cimerora: from Tartarus with love (ID# 292389)
Author: Nebulhym

Presentation: No typos or grammatical mistakes that I noticed. Mission intro and exit dialogs were clear and easy to read. Can’t ask for more.

Content: I should first off say that I love historical/mythical fiction. So I really wanted to like this. And I was not disappointed. The author did a good job with the names of the characters, using the correct or at least close enough to not bother me, Roman terms. The enemy was visually impressive (if a bit annoying to fight, what a mixed bag of powers) and the story itself held together. And whatever else, the main villain has some major cojones!
It's a shame the outdoor map had those huge warwalls visible, but I accept that’s a limitation of the engine and not the author, and to balance that I really liked the visit to Juno’s temple.

Only thing I would say is sometimes I felt the missions needed a bit more background content. A bit more dialogue perhaps with some non-mission related clue items to flesh out the plot.

Difficulty: I soloed this with Adov Atomika, my lvl50 brute. My difficulty wasn’t the lowest and some of the huge mobs proved difficult.

Overall: Lots of fun. I will definitely be checking out the rest of the series when I get a chance.

Result: 4 Stars

Review: Day Job Hell: Teen Phalanx Forever! (#67335)
Author: PW

Presentation: No typos or grammatical mistakes that I noticed. Mission intro and exit dialogs were clear and easy to read. Can’t ask for more.

Content: The basic premise of this one is great. I was playing this one with my corruptor due to the odd level ranges (15-20, 20-25, 25-30?) and I had to giggle every time “Kid Doctor Hate” was mentioned. I also got a nostalgia buzz meeting Coyote as the contact.

The first mission was enjoyable, meeting the kid versions of the big names. (Side note 1, Manticora’s dialogue was very appropriate for my character “Doctor Hate Jr.?! Are you KIDDING me? Are we really THIS desperate for recruits?!” heh).

The second mission sort of dragged on without adding much to the overall story. It had its nice touches but I was very bored of the fight/rescue teammate/repeat by the end. The third was fun and I was curious who the villain would turn out to be. Unfortunately the reveal of the last mission was a bit of a damp squib. Due to the nature of the story I was expecting the reveal to tie in with some group or villain with a connection to Freedom Phalanx, and that trying to work out who was part of the story. Instead it turns out to be a completely new, created for this story, silly villain. Ultimately I found the resolution a very unsatisfying end to the adventure.

Side note 2: the plot of the first mission was actually a bit creepy. Cool, if very dark idea.

Difficulty: I soloed this with absolutely no trouble with Kid Doctor Hate, my lvl 33 corrupter. Had I known then what I know now I’d probably have tried it with my lowbie scrapper, Jed the Dead, as the team backup of three or four bosses made even the EB fights easy. This isn’t a complaint, I got a real kick from being part of Teen Phalanx (Forever!).

Overall: A fun idea let down by mission two and four, especially four. I had to seriously debate how I’d score this but in the end I went with three instead of four stars

Result: 3 Stars

Review: Day Job Hell: A Villain's First Day Job (ID 322480)
Author: Clave Dark 5

Presentation: No typos or grammatical mistakes that I noticed. Mission intro and exit dialogs were clear and easy to read. Can’t ask for more.

Content: Good dialogue, clues and mission pop ups. The humour was both lowbrow and amusing, with only a few failed notes (the peanut butter joke). The star of the story was Fats. I loved every bit of his dialogue. The only niggling problems I had was with the plot. When Fats fires you it feels a bit sudden, as he’s just finished a “stop complaining and buck up” type speech. Also how did the STD leader know you had the pot, and why did you have to find it again in the last mission (it would have been better maybe to say “you have to find a spot to brake it”. But these were very minor issues, and I may simply have missed or misread the relevant dialogue.

Difficulty: I soloed this without much trouble with Jed the Dead, my lvl 12 scrapper. The allies were handy and I liked how they were, in theory, optional. (I say theory as I had no choice in picking them up due to placement).

Overall: A fun story. A solid 4star and I’ll be looking up more of the authors work.

Result: 4 Stars

Review: PENGUIN (ID 29205)
Author: Tubbius

Presentation: No typos or grammatical mistakes that I noticed. Mission intro and exit dialogs were clear and easy to read. Can’t ask for more.

Content: Appropriate and good use of standard enemies. Every hostage and ally had a bio. Events had well written dialogue and clues. The plot made sense, was easy to follow and fit in with the CoH background.
However I felt there was a bit of a disconnect in the humour. Up until the last mission the humour was restrained and not the central aspect of the story. Then in the last mission it suddenly ramped up the silly to 11. I felt that either the rest of the story should have had the same silliness, or the last mission should have cut out the hero allies completely.

Difficulty: I soloed this without too much trouble with Doctor Hate, my lvl 33 corrupter.

Overall: For me the sudden change in tone for the last mission was a bit of a let down, turning a solid 4star story into something less. However humour is such a subjective thing I didn’t feel it warranted reducing my score in the MA. Hence my review here listing it as 3.5, while I gave it 4 stars in the MA.

Result: 3.5 Stars (rounded to 4 in the MA).

I want to play what you consider is your best story. I'll rate it and give feedback. I'm much more interested in plots and stories than ingame rewards so I don't really care if the arc has been gimped by xp changes or whatever as long as it has got a good story.

I'll be running them solo as either my 32 corrupter, 12 scrapper or my 50 brute. If you have a preference let me know.

Remember, I just want your best. one entry per player. If I really like it I'm sure I'll check to see what else you've written.

Hey look, another permanent thread full of dead content. yay.

I just returned after a long gap (pre- MA) and I love the MA but when I try to use any of the MA forums all I find are sticky'd threads full of dead links, long finished competitions and last posts dated from 2009.

I tell you its driving me mad and killing my interest in the mission architect. Please for the love of god prune away the dead wood. When half the first page is filled with these useless things you might as well say "dead forum". Seriously, why are the entry requirements for a competition that closed in February still here? To make me feel bad because I missed it?

Sorry for the rant but it's very frustrating when you're trying to find MA resources but all the links lead nowhere.

cool cheers

Thanks for the feedback. I'll work on those typos and see if I can rebalance the ambushes.

I liked your arc too, didn't see any typos and it was genuinely very funny. Only thing I can mention is that maybe I missed something but the intro bit for the last mission didn't make it clear what she was asking me to do.

If I edit a published arc, does it get a new id number?

So I reviewed Bonnie and her bunny (Arc ID: 59406)

The first map was good. I liked the combination of the smoke filled cave and the custom critters (all you could see through the smoke was the glowing eyes, very atmospheric). However there wasn't much else in the map. A few clues of dialogue would have made it perfect. My lvl 33 corrupter nearly died a few times, which I liked (my brute tends to cake walk through anything).

Second mission and I think the author has stopped trying. No dialogue, even as you rescue the doctor and the clue you get isn't finished. The intro and exit dialogues need work. I'm ok with the over the type exclamations (!! and ??? type stuff) as it has a bit of a comic book vibe but please get the capitalisations right.

Last map and the typos are even more prevalent. I wasn't able to finish this one as the EB was too tough for my corrupter (I suspect if I'd had better inspirations I'd have been fine, ran out of end too soon)

Basically I thought the idea of the arc was good, the first map was entertaining, but it seemed the author gave up after the initial effort. A bit of polishing, maybe throw in some advanced encounters (like patrols) and this could be a lot of fun.

====================

I'd love some feedback on my own arc

Arc name: Die Eckleman Die!
Arc ID: 416656
Length: 4 missions
Levels: 28-31
Morality: Villaniousl
Enemy Groups: Rogue robots, Custom
Description: A multiverse of murder await! How far will one man go for vengence?

Just finished my first story using the Architect system. I’ve been away from CoH for several years and only came back a few days ago. I really like the changes. The Architect system is a load of fun.

Anyway it took me three days and I think it’s good to go. I would love some feedback, especially if you notice any typos.

The arc is called Die Eckleman Die!
Id: 416656
Basically it's a villainous parallel earth hoping scifi story.

P.S. Hope this ok to just create a thread to advertise this. Not sure what the acceptable protocol is.

EDIT: So I somehow messed things up so I had to republish it - old id has been replaced with the new one

Also any mission door works, submarines, trucks, snake holes. It's all very entertaining

After soloing a corruptor I'm taking a break and levelling a brute and I'm loving the mez protection. Take that circle of thorns boss, you can't stop me now!

It's as I suspected then oh well, it's annoying but I can live with it.

Hi, in my house we have wireless broadband and when playing CoV there is a notacible lag on everything, which isn't present if we swap to a network cable to the router.

Is this just the nature of wireless or is there any settings we can play around with to make the wireless gameplay less laggy?

(we have NTL broadband running through a netgear router with netgaer wireless usb devices in the computers)

Cheers for any help you can provide!