lionheart_fr

You can design your own enemies, from minions to Arch Villains, to use in your MA arcs.

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Assumptions assumptions assumptions.

First of all if your mission was banned then it would still show up in your published missions list and would have a nice big tag by it which would explain why it was banned.

Now as to the actual supposedly "nerfed" missions. The rabbit mission is still there. I wouldn't exactly call it a detailed story line but it isn't a farm either. Like I said though, it's still there.

As for the Warface clone one it's still there as well but not playable. Most likely you used one of the maps that the devs pulled from the architect because it had spawn location issues.

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That's an interesting point that perhaps gets overlooked.

Did the mission officially get banned or did it simply cease to function via a patch change?

My mission ceased to function; however, all I had to do was republish (without unpublishing) and it was back up and running again.

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Agreed. And PLers can't miss the mission-entry advert that says "Mission Architect Tip: You can level 1-50 with Mission Architect," or words to that effect. It's a way of saying, "Skip the game content. PL, PL, PL."

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Contrary to some people's interpretation of that statement, I don't think it has anything to do with the devs promoting PLing or farming. Far from it. Many people like to see it that way, but if you look at it more logically, they are merely stating that the MA can be a means to get all the way to level 50, because the wide range of missions available in AE does cover every possible level range. The devs would be have to be stupid to promote something that they have clearly discouraged since MA went live. But, people tend to want to interpret things like that the way they want them to be, which is highly unlikely the way they were meant by the devs at all.

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Agreed.

Being able to level 1-50 in MA has nothing to do with PLing, which was listed as a no-no *before* MA went live. The devs did not promote PLing or exploiting; they expressing forbid it from day one.

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Yes that's true but judging the quality of any given piece of work is very subjective, heavily based upon the individual. This brings me back to my original assertion that commercial success is a good indicator of whether that author has successfully reached his core audience. If his core audience finds the quality of his work to be acceptable enough to purchase, what you or I think of his work is irrelevent to those people.

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My apologies at jumping into a debate that I haven't been a part of, but this paragraph jumped out at me.

Commercial success is often based on who has the best marketing and most advertising dollars, not on who has the best quality product or most talent.

As you said, it's subjective. There are a lot of famous people with little or no talent, just good PR. There are a lot of "unknowns" that never see the light of day because they don't have the right contacts or marketing resources -- or simply are not interested in fame and fortune.

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I took all my arcs down, and will likely never make another one ever again.
Since the Ratings system sucks so much, I honestly havent really logged into the game.

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HI P_P.

I'm sure you know this but I wanted to let you know that this game is not dependent on the Rating System. You can still enjoy running missions in AE or anywhere without worrying about the rating system sabatoging your fun.

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Exactly. Whether playing or writing, it can be done for fun, not just stars. Ratings are the fluff; fun content is where it's at (opinions, of course, may vary ).

I currently only have one arc up, but have plans already for at least seven more, with more ideas in the wings.

While I'd love unlimited arc slots (or at least more than we've gotten), there are no limits to the number stories one can write. My arcs will be rotated out as needed.

Mostly, I write stuff I would enjoy playing. As long as my family/friends enjoy them, that's all that really matters to me (it's nice to have a wife and daughter who like to game with me; they're my primary audience). Admittedly, it's been kind of cool to see others play my arc and enjoy it, but that's not going to be a criteria to keep an arc up if I need the space for something new.

None of my arcs will go away; if they are unpublished, they will most likely be republished again in the future. I don't care about retaining the ratings, just having fun.

That said, I have been waiting to see the final outcome of the changes in i15 before publishing anything new.

Mouse over the little question mark beside the Ally Behavior bar; it gives definitions for each of those settings. Those question mark notes are very useful throughout the design process.

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Still feeling pretty down. As I like through the forums here, all the posts that actually discuss the game are commenting on things that are horribly wrong with it, how it will fail, and how much better Champions Online will be. Oh, and that i15 and the MA are failures and/or broken.

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Selective reader, I see. Only posts that agree with your gloom and doom are "actually" discussing the game. All the posts about people enjoying the MA don't count. After all, they're just "fanboys" right?

Judging from how much fun many of us are having in MA, the dev content, and so forth, the fact that a number of people are noticing an uptick in renewed accounts, and that superheroes seem to be flocking to Paragon City (based purely on anecdotal evidence, of course), there is little to really back up the gloom and doom.

Have the devs made some mistakes? You bet. So do devs in every game. I've seen gloom and doom posts with every change in the other MMO I play. I see tons of gloom and doom posts in another MMO's beta boards (made quite a few myself). It doesn't keep people from enjoying the games and the predictions haven't met with reality yet.

City of Heroes has a strong fan base that has weathered a lot, adapted, and still enjoy the game. The two "competitors" on the horizon focus on different areas of gameplay than CoH (and each other). I think this is a smart move on their part. It means they will each have their own niche and perhaps complement each other instead of killing each other.

Variety is good.

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I've put "Ma preferred but NO FARMs plz" in my search comment.

I get tired of being invited to PuGs who seem to think I want to do nothing but farm. I join up, roll into a mission and see that huge Paragon City street map and just sigh...

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I agree about farming, however I always wonder when I see the automatic perception about a given map. I've played arcs on that map that were not farming missions. It's not my favorite map by a long shot -- believe it or not, I like the big CoT maps better. At least there, the environment itself is conducive to a "search" atmosphere; it "feels" right -- but the big city map itself is not limited to farming.

Note that in the AE you don't have to stick with your own level. Auto-SK and auto-exemp apply.

Also, I've found the AE to be a source of some of the most challenging content I've played yet, in part because custom critters hit a lot harder than most standard NPCs.

However, farm missions are set up for minimal effort and maximum reward. If you want to enjoy AE with a challenge, avoid farm teams. There are a lot of players who like AE for the content and challenge (even making challenge missions).

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...so she might return as Grandma Granite.

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Hey, hey, hey now, no slandering existing villains.

See my one and only MA arc (so far) "Granny Granite and the Senior Moment Gang" for details.

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Grammar.

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We ought to make a thread about Gramper to so he doesn't feel left out.

The point of the architect is to allow those who enjoy creating their own content, their own stories, and their own enemy groups do so -- and have tons of fun with it. It's not work, it's fun.

For you, if you don't enjoy creating content, etc., the benefit could be that much more content for you to play. If you have a level 50 character, think of it as unlimited endgame content, if you will.

There are many aspects to MA. Some will love it, others will not. Variety is good.

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Can we just get rid of MA please?

Honestly, all these problems would just magically dissapear if we didn't have this damned tumor in CoX in the first place. I, for one, would not give a rat's rectum if MA just suddenly ceased to exist. On the contrary, I would be celebrating, and returning to my gleefully "stale" mainstream content.

CoX was fine before MA. Now it's not fine. I wonder what the problem is!?

/rant

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CoH is still fine. MA is a great addition. If you don't like it, don't participate in it. But don't take the fun away from the rest of us.

The only real "issues" are on the forums. The game is going fine.

"It's not a tumor."

No redo, but tweaks for sure.

Now I can buff up my main boss (just boss, not elite) without making her overpowered. Right now, she's actually a little on the light side, which was the better alternative at the time.

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QR:

I am so sick of this entire debacle I honestly wish they would remove MA from the game, just take is all out, strip the badges, I don't care..... just make it gone.

I feel that this is the most serious danger the game has ever been in, due to punitive actions of this and that sort, which have been discussed to death... friends are leaving over the nerfs, let's just roll it back to the way it was and let people try to heal.

The whole thing is a giant negativity-sink and.... and I know they're not going to take it out but I really feel that would be the best outcome. This is going from bad to worse, as in floods of people leaving.

I don't want my MMO to die. And it feels like the MA/related issues are killing it. I'm just very sad

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Many of us actually *like* the MA. We don't consider it a debacle and consider it one of the most *positive* things that have happened to CoH for some time.

To me, it's breathed new life in the game. I'm glad it's here. Judging from the number of arcs, number of plays, and crowds in many of the MA buildings, I'd say we're doing all right overall. Except on the forums, of course. But that's a different game altogether.

I'm sorry, FallenAngel, but I've spent most of my time in AE since i14 released and haven't farmed once.

Please don't equate AE with farming; a lot of us like to create and play custom content. There are a lot of creative people in this game.

Now, that doesn't mean it won't impact finding teams; after all, I just noted I've spent most of my time there, so I'm not out and available for teams. However, you wouldn't miss me -- I rarely do pick up groups. Mostly I play with family and friends or solo. (mostly duo with my wife.)

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At current, when facing custom critters, the only sure way of living through the custom critters is to stock up on Lucks before engaging or mez, mez, mez, repeat. "Good Luck" if you're entering a Custom Critter-only mission.

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I play mostly custom critter missions. Never stock up on Lucks. Many authors have figured out that if you want to create custom groups, you've got to be careful how you construct them at the moment.

Custom critters are still doable; I haven't found most of the ranged attacks to be much of an issue. Where the main sticking point for me is the addition of aim and buildup at the "hard" level instead of extreme. It pretty much assures that most custom critters need to be left on standard so as not to be too overpowered.

Hopefully some of the changes mentioned for i15 will address this.

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It doesn't matter if you consider a map a farm or not. Just go to the AE and look at the constant broadcast for all boss map farms. If it's being farmed heavily, it's a farm.

A team having a granite brute, a Kin, and 2 permadoms plus various AOE damage dealers can destroy pretty much any map. But when they are unleashed on an all boss map the rewards are significantly higher than on a normal map with mixed ranks.

I think the devs will be satisfied as long as farming is kept to something that's happening in the background as opposed to dominating the AE. I don't think that goal has been met yet. The changes I suggested would further tilt the balance.

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Ah. Well, as one who doesn't farm, I guess I've never looked into the possibilities. I mostly run with my wife and/or daughter, or solo. Toss one two of our brothers in for a "big" group.

The only concern I have is that we will get so consumed with curbing "non-exploitive" farming, that we'll step on those who enjoy features *without* farming or exploiting.

It's a razor's edge for the devs. I don't envy them.

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The changes the devs made have been steps in the right direction. They just need to change it to prevent maps of all one rank (i.e. no more all-boss, or all-LT or all-minion maps) and eliminate the auto-SK system.

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Not sure I get this one. As long as the risk:reward ratio functions as it should, why would any of these examples matter?

I've only been in one arc that had an all boss spawn. If it had been the first mission in the arc, I probably would have dropped it. However, it was not and I wanted to complete the arc.

It was hard. Made doubly so because all of the bosses looked the same and had the same name, but only one was "the" boss that had to be taken out.

Since it was very challenging, I would not consider that a farm, especially since the mission completed when the key boss was eliminated. Those who wanted to end the mission at that point (like my wife and I) could; those who wanted to continue fighting could.

There is nothing wrong with "challenge" missions. The issue is with "no challenge" missions that give fantastic rewards. In other words, when the risk:reward ratio is out of whack.

Personally, I prefer a blend of ranks; it just gives more variety and fun to the mission to me. However, I'm not going to substitute my preferences for how everyone should set up their missions.

Auto-SK allows a much wider variety of content in the MA for all levels. I've played a number of missions where the "level" range jumped around -- including some higher than my character's current level, and some lower (I auto-exemplared those). They were still fun. There is the potential for abuse, but it's hardly a gamebreaker.

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Interesting thing though is CO has the feeling that it is the real COH II

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Not hardly. Maybe CoH 0.05.

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If an arc is unplayable due to patch woes... it should be flagged so that it doesn't show up in the search options AND a note sent to the email address of record.

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That's a nice idea. I found out my previously working long arc was unplayable do to some kind soul sending me feedback. I discovered that the map I used for the last mission was removed. It would have been nice to discover this in some more informative way. It wasn't one of the typical farm maps and I have yet to understand why it was removed.

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Some maps were removed for bugs, not farm issues. For example, I believe the burning forest map was removed because of a spawn point that occurred mid-air, which only fliers could reach.

Hopefully, when the bugs are fixed, these maps will be re-implemented.

But then why would republishing (with no changes) fix it, if it were a text limit issue?

This happened to my arc (139671) just this weekend. Thursday/Friday there was an upsurge in plays (went from 13 ratings to 36), then nothing. I assumed that was normal, considering how long it's been up.

Then I decided to run it again myself on a different character, and it would not come up. I had to republish to make it playable again.

No changes of any kind have been made to it for a couple of weeks now.

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I believe Positron has said that you can't accidentally 0-star an arc. If you don't rate, it's just no rating. I have had someone run through one of my arcs, fail (due to a bug that I have since fixed), and not rate it, and my total number of ratings didn't change.

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You are correct. Not rating an arc does not give a zero rating. I believe in order to get a zero rating, you have to click the first star twice.