imported_CrazyCorsaire

Dear Caves,

I don't normally have things like this happen to me. But I was out spelunking with the Swedish exchange student who is staying with us for the summer...

...six hours later we finally came, back to the entrance of the cave. We had much fun but left many of our toys behind. If someone asks about the "mining" equipment perhaps you can pass along this tale.

Thanks,
Happy Explorer

Extra thoughts:

The target audience of a Critical Review should be a potential future audience member. As such a Critical Review should take pains to not spoil the first time experience of said people.

With a system that allows "easy" republishing, a review can wear elements of both hats. Other than complete flubs, a theatre review isn't going to get a play rewritten or even a director to rework the staging. Maybe in a rare occassion that the audience feels something drags, the director may give a "pick up the energy" feedback to their cast. So, in this venue, both things can happen, but stylistically the "for the future audience" part should be where the flame and invective dance merrily; the critique part should be sincere feedback and not be presented as spectator sport.

I like the recommended list idea a ton. More than any I've seen (or suggested myself.) Very elegant. By having a limited list size, it gives meaning to each recommendation.

Makes Hall of Fame much simpler too, if an arc has X recommendations for over Y period of time it becomes a HoF arc.

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Wow! Awesome help, all!

I agree, "playstyle" isn't quite right. Suggestions?

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How about Motivation to Play or Type of MMOGer?

But things like motivation is going to get the ephemerals, like "to have fun, duh." I think your intent is clear.

I'll break up Explorer into:
Content/World Explorer
and Character/Mechanics Explorer

As I'm a Character/Mechanics Explorer, I want to understand how everything works how different parts of a game plays for different characters, what's the game like following this path. In a style arc near Alt Aholic.

Also custom characters have a "home" group, if you edit the custom critter and put it into a new say "Deleted" group then it should make it simpler to clean it up.

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I've played around with reflective text to alter it from being the contact on a second mission to being you thinking about the contact:

"Bob the Contact may have mentioned how sneaky Dr. Dastardly is, but he didn't mention an inclination towards traps."

Or with an object contact:

"Hard to believe a little curiosity about an ancient urn would leave you trapped neck deep in a sewer. Maybe if curiosity hadn't got you to pull that stupid lever."

Hi, I've read through a number of your threads. Seems like an intriguing idea, post-Victorian steampunk is my second favorite genere. I might be interested in getting involved.

I saw the odd reception in the art forum. I know as someone whose spent thirty years learning game development related skills I've been a member of a few too many fan projects that have bellied up. The main reason has been they've lacked a producer. Someone to keep all the pieces together and manage timelines and keep folks motivated.

From the activity I've seen you pursue here, you may be a natural producer. Have to have:[*]Motivation[*]Passion[*]Organization[*]Perseverence

Obviously knowledge in the field is good, but at heart they are very personal talents. Don't need a degree, don't need to learn software development, 3D modelling, sound effects, etc. Just have to make it happen.

If you get your website up and a forum running, PM me and I'll check it out. About the only skills I don't have are music and system development (meaning 3D engine development and networking.) By day I manage a team of software engineers.

As you are researching and learning your way through, I'd suggest taking a look at Multiverse this answers the most costly aspects of developing an MMORPG, interesting business model.

Mission Architect has refired my interest in game development. Gotta strike while the iron's hot.

I've seen 6% as the rough space cost for a custom critter, so it should work.

p.s. If you are just looking for variety, you could duplicate one of the minions and just tweak a couple of features like hair-style or a color here and there to create variety without adding a completely new concept.

You can create a custom group consisting of only stock characters that cover various level ranges. The engine will select the members that fit the level range being played.

Great Idea. Also very useful for the creator of the arc to review spelling, grammar, and sequencing.

Plant/Kin - Because I'm a sucker for DoT damage, and Seeds of Confusion is just wrong. Carrion Creepers takes a full instruction manual to explain, but one click to play about the most fire and forget thing there is. Kinetics pumps it all up and gives you lots of heat of battle decision options with buffs that leverage off of debuffs. It plays fine first seven levels, and after eight it never looks back.

I would go with bronze, when you get a recipe you'd like to use then switch to purchasing the salvage needed to make it. For the common salvage parts, roll until you get the ones you need. You shoul have enough excess to sell on the market to cover your crafting costs with good change left.

I buy SOs for my MA only characters with tickets, but common salvage is more rewarding. The above approach can make it more like a little sub-game than just a money grind.

I would either remove the oldest one or the one with the lowest ranking.

Just don't see how anyone can make a musical without patrols using the West Side Story snap-walk.

For strange genres how about single gag comic strips. Peculiar in a story telling venue, but heavily used in MA Arcs.

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My father passed away 30 years ago, I am not looking for another one. If I were I wouldn't want one that throws a hissy fit because people don't get his vision. If that's your bag and it certainly seems to be the groove of many forum posters fine and good, just don't be surprised when most people don't share it.

Slashdot front page article on MA

Seems the outside world is less than enthused as well. While appeal to majority is very weak its considerably better than because I say so that you and so many antifarmers use

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An article about an article, guess it's fame of sorts. Obviously from the posts *startled* some people who play CoH also are Slashdot subscribers. Looks like some of the threads here have just spilled over there.

To the father thing, Positron's post sounded like something my father would say: "Clean up your room yourself, or I'll clean it up for you. However, I don't know what's trash and what's a toy; so, don't be surprised if I throw everything away." or what I say to my son: "That's a chair to sit in. It isn't a step stool, a hammer, or a see-saw. If you can't use it as a chair, I'm going to have to take it away."

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Okay, I really want to play this. Since searching for "Vampire Lord" will probably turn up a bunch of stuff, as both words are commonly used, can you provide arc numbers for the three you've published?

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Vampire Lord worked for a search. Gets some extra arcs, but looking for orange on the Author field made it fast to find.

When I looked, I think there was one total play. I even went so far as reading the contact dialogs. I think 3 arc slots is a very good idea. It's a great way for people to cut their teeth, learn about the audience here, get feedback on things like exceedingly dull text.

I've got one published single mission arc. Five or six that I fleshed out on paper and tossed away. Another three or four that I made into longer arcs in MA and found that they weren't that fun or interesting enough to publish. And maybe another five or six I'm forming up. I predict one of these will make it out as a published arc.

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Well when we only get three slots each, many authors want to make each one count. Personally a single-mission arc feels like a waste of a slot to me. If we didn't have that limitation then I would make some short ones as well.

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While that is the case, there is such a thing as too much. After all, there're quite a few people who think Robert Jordan stretched out the Wheel of Time too far.

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And oh how I do wish I had stopped after the first three of that one.

Unless it's fiction in New Yorker, we tend to expect a conclusion to a story. I'd rather have a one joke pony mission than a five mission arc with an unsatisfactory ending.

Having fun is often a balance of finding/making fun and avoiding unfun.

Check out Fearghas in the MA Stories area. He's doing a long serialization that people like so much that other folks are donating publishing slots.

After skimming the thread, I guess I'm the only one who didn't notice "dialogue" when they first saw the thread.

Sniffle...

Darktide, wherefore art thou, Darktide

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Great satire, but... what exactly are you satirizing? I must have missed the uproar about multiple characters per account that inspired this...

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actually this is a satire of anti-powerleveling. How some players selfishness is hurting the game, how you can't have fun powerleveling, how there is one proper way of playing.

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You totally derail achieving prophet status if you tell people the point.

There goes 20 pages of speculation and idol worship, sniffle...

I don't have a quote, but it made my back arch and toes curl too; is that wrong of me?

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(That's why Mario isn't the only playable character in Mario Kart!)

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Well now don't I feel stupid!?

Could someone help me PL Luigi?

Sounds amusing, I have a quick humorous 15ish minute mission: Eagor - Idiot for Hire.

Might fit nice into a horoscope as it attempts to play with a little bit of villainous character development; as in, what happens when you want to be the boss.

Link in sig.

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*Where no were.. Its important nto only to the game but to our language that we correct stupid mistakes such as the secon word in your post.

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Is that baiting or your normal spelling? Just curious.

To the topical topic:
Typos, oops, thanks.
Spelling, sure, fire away.
Punctuation outside of dialog, go for it.
Punctuation in dialog, tread lightly.
Confusing, by all means.
Specific rewrite instructions, stop.

I've seen some really bad suggestions to "perfect grammar" or clarity that would basically suck the life and character right out of the writing. Voice comes from how you write.

It won't quite give you total control and difficulty settings may throw it off, but you could make one negotiator a captive and then put the other negotiator as an LT in its own group say Negotiator2. Then set the guarding group to Negotiator2 as Ally and Medium difficulty (or maybe hard.) Just so you don't get multiples of the LT, put a couple of PPD or such minions in the Negotiator2 group.