Tripp Hazzard

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[AV] So it's a Sister Flame rescue attempt eh? Which heroes? Who do I get to trounce on today?

[Minion] Uh...All of them?

*Pan out as the wall to the Lair Of Evil simply evaporates revealing legions of heroes stretching back to the horizon*

[AV] *BLEEP* ME!

[Heroes] That's kinda what we had in mind.

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(catching up with the thread)

I have been calling clockwork "click-clacks" in my own mind ever since I read "clicky-clacks" here.

And this left me in hysterics. Fortunately, unlike Dark Voltage, I hadn't yet taken the drink of water I was about to. But I did have to set the glass down real quick.

Sign up one more for the "Rescue Sister Flame" Legion.

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It seems that all the female Crey agents are trained to die this way..lolol
Open for business

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You like it like dat?

[/ QUOTE ]crap, i canpt see! someone call 011 *I hope I got that right, I CANNOT SEE!!!(

You will be able to do it. I don't know exactly how, but they have talked about having allies, because, unlike in regular missions, allies in MA missions will reduce your XP. (So people can't load up a mission with allies for easy XP.)

So you'll want to keep that in mind, and make sure the ally's presence is worth more than the XP they'll "steal".

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Being someone who loves creative freedom (as much as possible plz ), I really look forward to MA. reading over some of the posts acouple of ideas popped into my mind.

1.) Rating Systems. It seems only fair that those who complete a mission from beginning to end could rate it. If someone drops a mission for whtever reason (boredom, dc or just plan had to go) there would be no rating given.

Anyway I look forward to it.

[/ QUOTE ]How about "dropped it because it's a day-old pile of cat vomit"?

Imagine you picked a mission because the description made it sound like an intriguing, challenging test of your ability as a player. 5 glowies to find, and a hostage to rescue. Or whatever. It sounds like a legit, honest mission and arc, something you expect you'll probably enjoy.

You enter it and the mission text reads "25 hostages to rescue", and the mission is nothing but CoT Mages and Behemoths surrounding multiple clones of Fusionette, all chanting "HAHA U LOOS SUKER!!". And you are supposed to rescue and lead each Fusionette to the exit.

Do you really want to have to play that thing through to the end before you can give it the rating it deserves? Or even for five seconds?

Seriously, make up your own example, if you want. Whatever the absolute most childish, stupidest "trick" mission is that you can think of, you know there will be people so childish and stupid that they will think that's "funny".

I'm not saying I expect there will be a lot of them. But I am sure there will be some. And we need to be able to drop those missions instantly, and give them the proper rating. Forcing us to "play along" for even one second, just so we can give it the appropriate rating, is NOT acceptable.

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Would you really let only a few ratings influence your choice that much? Sure, someone can sway the rating at first, but it won't take long for that to be lost in the shuffle as more people rate an arc.

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I don't recall saying that. I look forward to playing just about all of them. Its people ability to critique them fairly I question.

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My point was that if an arc only has a few ratings, I don't think most people will allow that to carry much weight, even if they're all uniformly bad (or uniformly good). I expect they'll more likely assume it's unrealistic until there are more ratings on a given arc.

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I'm a cynic, and even I expect the majority of people will rate arcs on their content first, and spelling and "grammer" second, if at all.

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A cynic believes that selfishness motivates human behavior. That being said some 12 year old playing your story arc who can not grasp your well thought out story gives you a low rating because it was beyond his comprehension. Or perhaps someone who just got a bad rating tears your apart in revenge. Selfish behavior.

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Again, they'll quickly be lost in the "honest" ratings.

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If you're concerned about your own writing and errors, do like any other writer does: have someone you know has the skills proofread it for you. That or run the text through a good word-processor. You can pick up an older version of Word quite cheap.

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I'm only worried about having the resources to do the stories I want to do. I won't know until I can get in to the Beta. Can't paint without a canvas you know.

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I got a couple of small patch updates today on my test updater... so... it's gotta be soon. no?

[/ QUOTE ]Absolutely, positively, indubitably Soon®.

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I say to HECK with the rating system.
I don't want to see someone's great story rated low because that particular player hated to actually bother to read it.

Nor do I want to see someone's Mind Blowing Death Defying mission rated down because he made some grammer error.

I say the Devs judge and them alone. BUT since this isn't going to happen then I'm glad there is a Dev's choice category so that great story arcs that are butchered by player opinion may actually be saved by the Devs.

[/ QUOTE ]Would you really let only a few ratings influence your choice that much? Sure, someone can sway the rating at first, but it won't take long for that to be lost in the shuffle as more people rate an arc.

I'm a cynic, and even I expect the majority of people will rate arcs on their content first, and spelling and "grammer" second, if at all.

If you're concerned about your own writing and errors, do like any other writer does: have someone you know has the skills proofread it for you. That or run the text through a good word-processor. You can pick up an older version of Word quite cheap.

Just remember that a spell-checker/grammar-checker is not perfect, and will not catch everything. There's still no real substitute for a well-trained set of little grey cells.

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Mmm. If people are going to be rating my arcs based on the degree of difficulty, I may be the all time champion of suck. I'm mostly interested in the story-telling.

[/ QUOTE ]People will rate all the missions/arcs they rate on different standards. Some will look for stone walls of difficulty to beat their heads against. Some will look for creative, original story telling. Some will look for creative, original enemies. Some will look for easy, fast, fun diversions. Some will be looking for the maximum rate of XP and Ticket Drops.

That's why I hoped we'd be able to put a comment with our ratings. So that people could say WHY they gave it a particular rating. Unfortunately, "There are no public comments available. It has been considered but will not be in for release. "

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If you're judging something before you've even met a mob, you can't judge it fairly. What if they have a suprise planned? Some people might one star if the mission says you have to rescue Faultline and Fusionette, what if there is more to it than that?

The idea that you have to play the whole arc to give a review is a bit much, true, but the idea that you can judge an arc based on not even meeting the first mob is just as silly. It makes a mockery out of having a review system.

[/ QUOTE ]Dude, give me a LITTLE credit, okay? I'm not trying to claim that I can judge every mission, or even many of them, without even fighting a single mob. I don't think anyone but a complete moron would. I AM saying that I expect to encounter some missions, though, that truly are so bad that I, and anyone else, will be able to tell instantly that they are garbage. I don't expect to encounter very many. And if I'm lucky, I might not even encounter any at all.

But they will happen. Do you really think they won't? That there will never be a mission so crappy that you can tell from the moment you enter it's nothing but 10-day-old offal? Perhaps the player described a basic hostage rescue, and you enter and discover that it's the max number of AV/EB spawns, placed so that attacking one spawn aggros multiple other ones, and the mission text says "SUKER! YOU LOOSE!!" [misspellings deliberate]. Or whatever. Make up your own example. There WILL be some missions that are so bad you know instantly they are 1-star, at BEST.

I don't think most people are going to walk into a mission that turns out to just be tougher than they thought it would be, or not what they expected, or just poorly done, and they'll all drop immediately and 1-star it. I think most people will either get an honest feel for the mission before they give it a rating, or not rate it at all.

But there will be ones that deserve a 1-star the moment you enter. You and I may disagree on which ones they are, even, but they will be there. And we both should be allowed to respond appropriately.

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So each player (I'm assuming this means account) can only have three uploaded missions/story arcs active at one time?

Lame.

I have way more than three ideas for great story arcs, and I'll guarantee many others do as well.

I didn't expect any limit on the number of missions you could post, but if there must be one, make it higher.

[/ QUOTE ]Both rating and publishing are by account.

You can swap your published stories in & out pretty much at will. There's a limit on how fast you can swap them, but it was described as measured in seconds, to keep the server traffic manageable.

There is no word either way on whether we'll be able to acquire more slots in the future, or if they'll increase the limit once the initial rush dies down.

Also, if one of your arcs makes Hall of Fame or Dev's Choice, that will free up one of your slots.

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I believe we get "pick any two powersets", though the critters more than likely won't be getting all 9 powers from each
set.

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Well right i just was wondering cause of my character Anya Lupescu she's a werewolf with darkness and storm powers (in game she is minus the storm powers since I made her a claws/regen stalker, will get the "dark" from Ghost Widow)

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One of the devs have said we won't be limited to the archetypes' powersets. The example he gave was being able to pick Fire Blast for the primary and Invulnerability for the secondary. So it might be possible for you to pick Claws and Storm Summoning if you'd like. But I don't think you'll be able to combine Claws, Regen, Dark and Storm powers in the same character.

[/ QUOTE ]The exact quote, FWIW, from Pohsyb, in the FAQ thread:
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You can chose 2 powersets that include almost all powersets available to players, but you can mix-match them in ways not available to players. (Ex: Fire Blast + Invulnerability ).

. . . We would love to expand this system further, but we cannot by release.

[/ QUOTE ] Doesn't say for sure if we can combine any of the available ones in any combo, but it does sound like you'll probably be able to do that Claws/Storm combo.

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Could one of the red names please give us a clue when open beta will start.

[/ QUOTE ]It is my impression that the only clue they EVER give is "Open Beta starts today!".

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I feel for the techs on both sides.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

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*ok, wich one of you two is the smart one?*

Gawd! that one actually made me laugh so hard I cried! LMAO

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Couldn't have been too bright himself if he had to ask. I wonder if these videos reflect how NC views the game's playerbase.

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Or he was having a joke at CA's expense, that he knew would be so far over CA's head it would be in orbit!

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Was wondering if thered be a supergroup Mission option available at some point... where you trade exp and inf for dbl prestige somthing like the enter sg mode button, or an sg based police scanner

[/ QUOTE ]Well, we will earn normal prestige in published missions.

And we may get an SG interface at some time in the future, but that is not confirmed. Only strongly implied.

Or did I miss your point completely?

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I understand that part. I know that I typed alot. Basicaly I was wondering more about players who like a published arc, but it gets unpublished when they want to do it at a later time with friends or with another character. I was not expecting to redo the arc right then and there, most likely within a day or two.

Basically if a published arc is played by someone who likes it, and wants to run it at a later time, but finds it is unplublished for whatever reason, what does one do? It may not have been up long enough for to earn a rating of "hall of fame" or getting "Dev Choice." If you remember the creator and arc name do you bug/beg them for a copy or request it republished? And that could overwhelm some lucky folks.

Even if a fanbased method is created or simple email sent to pass around and share, how will credit to the original creator of the arc or NPC group be maintained, short of not sharing it.

I know I would hate to share an arc I created, that eventually gets republished unchanged by someone else and get they get the special honors or Dev Choice. I know anything I create with MA is not really mine, but there is a prize and a benefit for composing arc that is rated as a 5 and is popular.

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I've seen hints of some kind of security so that you can share missions/arcs and they cannot publish it and take credit for it, but currently cannot find that info.

Other than that, yeah, you're going to have to beg the creator to put it back up.

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So um....when I read about this, this is the first thing that came to mind: HOW TO POWERLEVEL TO 50.

Anyone else realize that? Nice, straight, linear level, lots of mobs, chika chika mother frickin' boom!

[/ QUOTE ]Within the limits they are imposing on mission creation, that is a perfectly legitimate use of the system. You won't be able to create "super-farms", nor will you be able make super-easy, super high-xp missions. But MA is intended to be a viable alternate route to 50.

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Considering you can go from lvl 1 - 50 with MA, how long will an arc stay up if you are just running your own stories or running with a limited number of friends arcs. If you are just leveling with any posted MA content is one thing, but if your only running your arcs what then. If they are posted for a short time, those type of arcs will not get as rated as arcs that stay posted for a long time.

Maybe that individual does not worry about the account ticket pool. Maybe his/her stuff will suck, or be brilliant, but it is sad to be the person who may like an arc only to have it disappear before dragging their friends through it.

Those that over turn their arcs frequently will just have to miss out on significated player feedback for good or for ill, especially if they intended the arcs to be only their toy in the big kids pool.

Actually though of something funny. In those cases with people with large turn overs with good arc stories or simply just removing one of the popular ones, their in-game mail, global tells, and forum mail could be overflowing with requests for a copy of the arc. I think a few people will need bigger boxes. Though I expect some enterprising player(s) to create a website to share or exchange arc files, new NPC groups, or new NPC characters. Assuming the data is in small text files, like the costume data files, some information could be a simple forum post. I know we can use regular email to exchange those files, but sometimes a central location saves time instead of responding to each email requesting the same information. This also leads to a way of tagging an arc that is passed around so the original creator(s) are acknowleged in some way.

Also I wish there would be a way to have an ingame record of arcs and their creators we have played, so we can easily find it and drag our friends in. I understand the MA is run like a TF so while you are still in MA mode the information is there, but one you leave, outside of a posible souvenir, what record would we have. I guess we can keep an out of game list.

[/ QUOTE ]Your arcs stay published until you "unpublish" them, they get pulled for inappropriate content, or they make "Hall of Fame" and/or "Devs Choice" status. The latter frees up whatever slot they were in.

There is a limit on how quickly you can publish/unpublish arcs, but it was described as "in seconds, just to keep the traffic load down."

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ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz.........can we start open Beta yet?

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Seriously!!! This issue has been long overdue. C’mon dev’s let us see it.

[/ QUOTE ]Issue 12 took 6 months. Issue 13 6-1/2. This one's going to be 3-1/2. Relax, play some game. It'll be here the 24th of March.

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Granted, I haven’t read all 44 pages of this threat, but I have read several posts about MA rewarding us with tickets for defeating enemies. Anyone know, if these tickets are tradable amoung players?

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No, but just like merits, you can use them to buy stuff that is. You will receive tickets when playing published missions in place of all other drops. If a mob would normally have dropped an inspiration/enhancement/recipe/whatever, they'll drop a ticket. There will also be a ticket bonus at the end of an arc, that depends on how many tickets you pick up along the way.

You can then use them to "buy exactly what you want", but it's not quite clear whether that means you can select specific enhancements, inspirations, recipes, etc., or whether it just means you can pick specific random rolls. Or whether it'll be a mix of the two, sort of like Merits are.

Tickets you earn from other people playing your missions/arcs go into a pool that you can claim onto any character. Tickets you earn by playing other people's missions/arcs stay with the character that earned them.

I haven't seen any specifics on whether you can distribute tickets in your "pool" among different characters, or whether all the tickets in the pool at the time you claim them have to go to one character. I think we'll have to wait for Open Beta for the answers to the remaining questions.

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Sweet, guess that means I'll have to make an enemy group with max -resists that only throw brawl for me to farm

[/ QUOTE ]They're putting in datamining hooks to catch and squelch exactly that kind of thing. I'd say give it a shot during open beta, so you don't waste your time in the live release.

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I'm definitely hoping for Architect access from within an SG base, but somehow, I think I'm wishing in vain....

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you never know, the fire and ice crystals gave access to flash back missions in the SG base with out having to go to Oroboros, I hope they do something similar with MA as well.

[/ QUOTE ]pohsyb said there won't be base access to MA, at least not at launch.

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Exactly.

Pohsyb:
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Will there be a SG-base interface?

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Not initially.

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Which sounds like it's at least on the possible list.

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unless you have NPCs in your arcs helping you fight

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where'd you get this, from what i've read you still get full rewards if you have ally npc, you're just limited to how many you can have; Are dev-content arcs that have npc allies nerfed xp? I've never noticed anything like that

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No. Dev-content arcs still give you full XP when you have NPC helpers. I read somewhere that NPCs in MA arcs will reduce your XP (which makes sense, because otherwise you could make MA incredibly easy by stuffing missions full of powerful NPCs to help you). I'll try to dig up the source, unless someone knows already (::summons Tripp_Hazzard:.

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BAMF!

Pohsyb:

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Really? I hadn't heard that NPC allies will reduce your rewards. That would, of course, be different behavior from existing missions.

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Its true. If you put a bunch of allied archvillains at the front of the map, you can't just watch them kill everything for you and get full xp.

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Sorry, I suddenly got busy at work and couldn't spend as much time forum surfing, but I see others kindly picked up my slack. Good job!

<hands out Dark Chocolate Hershey's Kisses with Truffle Filling>

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Yet, first impressions are the most important. MA arcs are not like regular game content. We have more of a choice about whether we do them. Game content we have to do, if we want what follows. I can't count how many times I've rescued Fusionette in the Faultline arc, because that arc is a good way to get the Ouroboros badge before you're high enough to just go to Ouroboros. If we could START with the actual time travel mission, I'm sure a lot of people would.


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I agree with this to a certain degree but I feel that you can only get a 'cosmetic' first impression with CoX missions. You walk in the door and the only judgment you can really make is based on what you initially perceive e.g. map and mobs.

You need to play the mission for a few minutes before you can really rate it. 30 minutes maybe too long as some missions can be completed by this time perhaps 15 minutes.

As for the comments this would be a nice to have option but it maybe open to more abuse enabling players to type whatever they like. I think it most likely you will just have an opportunity to mark it out of 5 for example. Its quick, easy and will minimize abuse.

[/ QUOTE ]We won't have public comments, but we will be able to send comments to the authors. Uncertain if we'll get public comments in the future.

Make up your own example of a truly horrible bucket of chum mission that you can tell in the first couple of minutes, before you even fight one mob, is something the dog wouldn't eat and the cat would bury rather than drag inside. Those will happen. Let us bail and rate them as they deserve without having to endure it one minute longer than we have to. Other than that, trust the players. Don't force us to endure dreck longer than necessary until we prove otherwise. THEN they can start imposing whatever conditions/limits they feel needed.

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As I recall, they're severely nerfing the XP and rewards one can earn within MA arcs, as they're supposed to be 'simulations', not actual missions. That is to say, no salvage drops, no recipes, no enhancements, reduced chance of inspirations, and reduced XP.

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XP won't be reduced unless you have NPCs in your arcs helping you fight. Otherwise, you get full XP and Inf ( source )

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My understanding is that you'll get normal XP for published story arcs (of which you get three per account) along with tickets/tokens that can be redeemed. You get no XP or other rewards for running missions that are saved on your local computer and haven't been published, since the idea is that you can repeat them over and over for testing.

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Yeah, that's right. No XP for non-published MA arcs. Full XP and Inf for all published arcs. Just don't get drops like salvage and recipes.

[/ QUOTE ]Instead you get tickets that allow you to buy your drops.

From Ex LIbris FAQ thread, first post:

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We’re granting full experience (XP) and influence rewards for defeating enemies in player made content. We’re also giving players tickets in place of random drops. They can take these tickets to an Architect ticket vendor and redeem them for various in game rewards, such as enhancements, recipes and salvage.

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I don't have my full notes at work, but the ticket vendor is supposed to let you choose "exactly what you want" for drops.

And MA is intended to be a viable alternate route to 50, with a similar amount of "reward" available by cashing tickets, so if you play to 50 exclusively through AM, your character "won't be gimped or OP [overpowered]"