peterpeter

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My Arc is #25911
"So you want to join the Agency?" if anyone wants to give it a go

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I think yours got skipped (ironically) so I ran it. I took my 50 scrapper through on heroic.

The beginning was a little confusing. Am I supposed to know what Agency this is? I've never played a villain in the high levels, so I can't tell if Marshal Blitz is part of canon or not, not that it really matters.

(By the way, something seemed to go wrong with the spacing in the intro text, like a blank line was missing from between the paragraphs or something. Actually, all the briefing/debriefing text is like that.)

Mission 1:

When I hit Agent Burnet at the beginning, the wall of dialog from the NPC's was bigger than I could read, especially since I was busy fighting. I have the same problem with my missions. (And that happened a lot in this whole arc).

I seemed to get two clues at once. Not sure how that happened. One clue said that Agent Burnet took the documents, but agent Burnet was... no longer with me. The other clue said that Agent Honda was impressed with my conduct in the mission, but I wasn't done with the mission and don't know who Agent Honda is.

Mission 2:
Briefing - decypher should be decipher. beatin should be beating, or maybe beatin' but that would seem out of character for Agent Ford. maker's should be makers.

Wait, what did the mission entrance pop-up say? Something about Toyota? Not Clipper? When I found Clipper, he was a boss. Maybe tougher than a regular boss, but nothing I couldn't handle. Although Clipper was a melee boss, there was no reason for me to be using melee attacks (except that I happened to be a scrapper) so I'm not sure about calling it "hand to hand" training. I'm not sure I found Agent Ford's explanation of Clipper's behavior entirely satisfactory.

The agency sounds a lot like Vanguard.

Mission 3:
Briefing - interrigate should be interrogate. Also, I think you're using the word Rogue too much, and I'm not sure why it's capitalized so often. The Agency is made up of Rogues, some of whom are villains, so there must be current or former Arachnos members in there. But the Rogue Arachnos were the enemies in the first mission. And then you refer to the Agency as Rogues, and then you refer to the Arachnos as Rogues, and... I don't know. Just seemed like that word was overused a bit. Congrats on spelling it correctly, though! There is a lot of rouge going around in the MA.

Mission entrance pop-up: You know, as a level 50 hero, I really didn't feel like a nobody yesterday.

The fight with Arakhn was a bit of a let down. After all the talk about how deadly she was, she spawned as a Lieutenant? I guess 'cause I was running on heroic, but still. And I think her dialog could be better. Four question marks is a bit much. And having her tell me that I had assured her that I was not working with the Rikti didn't make much sense. I didn't assure her of anything. I just hit her.

Mission 4:
Briefing - I can see what you are trying to accomplish, but the Agent doesn't come off as being sneaky or deceitful so much as confused and erratic. It's a good idea, but I think the dialog should be fine-tuned.

Mission entrance pop-up: Who is the "I" here? If you are telling me what I think, then that feels a bit intrusive. And I think in the previous mission pop-up, you were using "we". It might be better to stick to more objective, external things in these pop-ups, rather than telling me what I am thinking.

Blitz did some serious kill stealing until I ditched him.

The ending was kind of a let down, I'm afraid. The fights were fun, especially with all the ambushes. The final AV (scaled down to EB) almost beat me until I popped some inspirations. For a minute I was afraid I wouldn't be able to finish the arc because I couldn't find the final boss. Well, for several minutes. I got him eventually, back near the beginning.

The story, though, kind of fell down at the end. I think too much of the actual plan was explained too late, while the "surprise" was hinted at too strongly too early. The fundamental question I was left with was "Why did they call me in the first place?" The reasons given in the text seemed either weak or contradictory.

All in all, I think the arc has potential. The first thing you need to do is examine the story from the bad guy's point of view and make sure that everything he does makes sense from his point of view. Then take another pass at the dialog to make sure it fully supports the story. Then one more pass to tidy up the spelling and apostrophes.

If anyone wants to run a mission of mine, it won't take long. The only thing I've published on live so far is Doctor Nadir and the Hellion Heist. It's very short, suitable for soloists and lowbies. Arc #49661.

You can get clues in the middle of a mission. They look kind of like souvenirs. Is that what you're thinking of?

What happens if you populate the single text field but leave the plural blank?

The boss moving around might be a side effect of the random and inaccurate front/middle/back spawn placements.

Silly question, but was he the same level as you?

The arc in my sig should be good for lowbies, and it should be fine solo. It's regular Hellions, with a custom boss at the end. He isn't overpowered, though.

During beta I started a whole series of Doctor Nadir stories. Each arc is a single mission. In each one, he came up with a new scheme to take over the world, invented something to give himself new powers, and teamed up with a different NPC enemy group. Three missions are finished, but the Hellion Heist is the only one I've published on live so far.

Post deleted by Niviene

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What about destroyable objects? I tried to do this trick using them, but didn't have any luck. That was during beta, though, so maybe something has changed, or maybe I was doing something wrong. Is it possible to have multiple destroyable objects with the same name? I wanted the NPC dialog around each one to be different.

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Plural text and singular text have nothing to do with the name.

When I've done this with, say, gas canisters, I've called it a tripartite nerve agent and labeled the canisters "compound A", "compound B", and "compound C".

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Ah, so the name has to be different, but the text does not. Got it. Thanks.

If I cared, I would make a spreadsheet of date vs # of DC arcs. I suspect that, despite all the good intentions, the rate at which missions receive DC will drop over time.

What about destroyable objects? I tried to do this trick using them, but didn't have any luck. That was during beta, though, so maybe something has changed, or maybe I was doing something wrong. Is it possible to have multiple destroyable objects with the same name? I wanted the NPC dialog around each one to be different.

Decorum: did you quote an old version of the thread? Some stories have vanished. Which, sadly, is evidence of why this useful information should exist in some other format than a forum thread.

AE System
--------
Welcome to Architect Entertainment -- Neutral
Death for Dollars! -- Neutral
Bare Knuckles of Rage (9304)
*

Character/Supergroup Origins
--------
Birth of a Fossil -- Heroic
Secret Origins(Tech) The Snake Women of Epsilon V (42221) - Heroic
Noah Reborn -- Heroic (2370)
Jumping in Feet First - Heroic - 1345
*

Classic Super-Hero/Super-Villain
--------
THE BOMBER --- Heroic --- 16607
In The Shadow of Statesman --Neutral--1160

Comedy
--------
The Extadine Lab -- Heroic
MacGuffin Delivery Service (1567) -- Villainous
ParaCon -- Heroic
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
*

Comedy/Drama
--------
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
*

Crime/Gangs
--------
The Bravuran Jobs -- Villainous (16809)
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*

Drama
--------
The Conciliators: Simone -- Heroic (4010)
The Fan Club -- Heroic
Matchstick Women -- Heroic -- 3369
Of Mentors and Legacy - Heroic - 1589
*

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

Heist
--------
Celebrity Kidnapping -- Villainous (1388)
Easy Money -- Villainous (31490)
*

Historical (Realistic)
--------
*

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

Holiday
--------
*

Horror
--------
Astoria in D Minor (41565) -- Heroic
Dark Dreams (3615)
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
*

Large-Scale Crisis
--------
A Hero's Halo -- 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
The Human Hive (#1632) - Neutral
*

Magic
--------
The Magical Miss Fitz (5079) -- Heroic
Chains of Blood (5492) -- Heroic
A Deal with Destiny -- Heroic
*

Military
--------
Redoubt Operations #1: Fires over Kalago -- Heroic
Red Storm Rising (Arc 4912) -- Heroic
Whitehawks (Arc 49364) -- Heroic
Axis and Allies -- Villainous (1379)

*
Misc. Adventure
--------
The Portal Bandits (3326) -- Heroic
*

Mystery
--------
Blowback (18575) -- Heroic
Dream Paper -- Heroic (13030)
Dream Paper 2: Restless Sleep -- Heroic (16797)
Dream Paper 3: Broken Dreams -- Heroic (13064)
*

Mythology
--------
Atlantis Attacks! -- Neutral (30898) -- Click for Promotional Poster
Anactoria's Descent Into the Underworld -- Villainous
The Seelie War -- Heroic
The Unseelie War -- Villainous
Tales of Cimerora, volume 1 : Of feathers and fur -- Heroic
The Aegis Affair - Heroic
Witches and Warriors (53006)- Heroic
The War of Fate(12220,46722)- Heroic
<a href="/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=13328874" target="_blank">Rites of the Maenads (61159) - Heroic</a>
*

Nemesis Plots
--------
Brass Reaver: Part 1 -- Neutral
*

Player-Chosen Outcome
--------
Hunting the Dark Dragon -- Heroic
Playing Gods -- Heroic (51106)
*

Sci-Fi
--------
Adventures of the Space Marines -- Neutral
Adventures of the Space Marines 2 -- Neutral
Above Mars - Part 1: The Wellington -- Neutral (13215)
The Final Nemesis
*

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

Puzzles/Riddles
--------
Grim Riddles (#1396) - Heroic
(Mantid, this isn't the City Scoop. If you use HTML tags, they will break when people quote you. )
*

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I can confirm that ticket distribution on teams is still borked.

Running a farm map solo I can get about 6000 tickets solo after the mission completion bonus. Duo'd it with a 2nd comp today and we both got about 1500 tickets each, for a total of 3000 total.

Check it again Devs

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I just spent an evening on a team of 8. We ran three or four short MA missions. No one had more than 75 tickets total by the end.

Did they fix the bug where you can't edit and republish any missions once you have three published missions? Maybe I missed it in the patch notes.

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Just for fun, here are some numbers.

The devs said you need to average 5 stars, but they will round up. So if you get one 4 star and one 5 star, that would be 9 stars over two ratings, for an average of 4.5. Rounded up, that's 5. So...

For each 4 star rating, you need ONE 5 star rating to keep your 5 star average.
For each 3 star rating, you need THREE 5 star ratings.
For each 2 star rating, you need FIVE 5 star ratings.
For each 1 star rating, you need SEVEN 5 star ratings to keep your 5 star average.

Unless people are feeling very generous, I don't think we're going to see all that many arcs in the Hall of Fame. Any rating other than 5 is a vote against Hall of Fame status.

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Slight disagreement in your sums. If they're rounding up, 4.1 becomes 5. So I believe I'm right in saying a 1 rating would need four 5 ratings.



And even if they've said that, I wouldn't be suprised if it isn't a hard rule. If an arc is averaging 4 but is getting very good marks in general and has been played by a huge number of people, I wouldn't be suprised if that made it in even if it's ratings are lower.

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Maybe. I was assuming 4.5 and up, but it could be 4.00001. We'll see. Personally, I would be very surprised if it was not a hard rule. The dev choice is going to be fuzzy and subjective. Hall of Fame will probably just be pure math: add up the ratings, divide by the raters, compare.

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I asked directly about public comments with our ratings, and told:

"There are no public comments available. It has been considered but will not be in for release."



Bummer.

Well, it's pretty obvious that this is a highly desired feature, so we can only hope they will implement it later.

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I don't desire it. I think comments should only be seen by the mission author. When you go to write a comment, who is the target audience? The author, or other players? I'd much rather see people giving feedback to the author than to the rest of the audience.

Just for fun, here are some numbers.

The devs said you need to average 5 stars, but they will round up. So if you get one 4 star and one 5 star, that would be 9 stars over two ratings, for an average of 4.5. Rounded up, that's 5. So...

For each 4 star rating, you need ONE 5 star rating to keep your 5 star average.
For each 3 star rating, you need THREE 5 star ratings.
For each 2 star rating, you need FIVE 5 star ratings.
For each 1 star rating, you need SEVEN 5 star ratings to keep your 5 star average.

Unless people are feeling very generous, I don't think we're going to see all that many arcs in the Hall of Fame. Any rating other than 5 is a vote against Hall of Fame status.

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How about this for "rating" poor arcs:

If you don't complete it, you can't rate it. However, each published arc also keeps track of the total number of times started (and perhaps also number of times completed), and displays this on the GUI in the list of MA arcs. If you see an arc with few or no ratings but a large number of times started, that should indicate that it probably isn't worth the attempt.

This doesn't do much to help those first people who try the arc, but such is the risk that you take when you play untested player-created material

[/ QUOTE ]But if people are trying to troll a specific arc or content creator, wouldn't this just make it much, MUCH easier?

Get a bunch of people to just start the arc, drop it, and repeat again and again. Something even a single person could do, actually, no SG needed. You'll give the arc a huge amount of starts but very few completes/ratings. If people are looking at those stats as a guide to how good an arc is, then it's an easy troll. If people DON'T care about those stats, then it's a pointless suggestion.


The devs are at least thinking about ratings trolls, have lots of datamining hooks, and have said in the past that they'll be keeping an eye out for rating trolls. This idea just makes it easier for anyone to do, and makes the potential problem a whole lot worse. IMO.

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It doesn't have to be a count of the number of times it was started. It could be a distinct count of the number of accounts which started it.

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Oh.

And you can't publish a mission that can't be "beaten". It might be hard, but the error checking makes sure that whatever you make is possible to complete.

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This is interesting. I'm going to be VERY curious to see how the system tests for whether a mission is beatable or not.

Will it test based on, say, the number of AVs present? Their powers bestowed by the architect? The relatively balance of a custom mob's power? I hadn't really planned on creating anything so challenging that this might come into play, I'm just hoping the checks aren't TOO stringent.

Would the LRSF pass the MA's test, I wonder?

What about 5 AV's, all BS/Shields, all spamming Parry, all with Grant Cover? (oh, and the bosses were all FF defenders)

I can't wait to get in there and see what "unbeatable" really means.

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I think he means that the system checks for logical impossibilities. You can have multiple objectives in one mission. If the missions are logically incompatible, then you can't publish the mission.

Example: Obj 1 - rescue Fusionette and lead her to the exit. After she leaves, you get a new objective - defeat Fusionette.

Or you could have a boss in a locked room, and the objective is to defeat him, but the only way to reach him is to get a key, and the only way to get the key... is to defeat him.

I think the system checks for those logical impossibilities.

As for the exploit thing, I think the problem is that the devs, Castle in particular I think, have used the word "exploit" rather carelessly in the past. Didn't Castle say it was an exploit that Hover gave partial knockback protection? After it had been behaving that way for more than four years? Do you think anyone's moral compass wiggled when they only got flipped around by a knockback power while hovering? There are some people who consider all farming to be exploitive behavior. Other people think it's just common sense to spend your time efficiently. God knows how often I've been accused of exploiting the market, just because I sometimes buy things that I plan to sell instead of craft.

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Forgive me if I'm wrong, but isn't defeating level 50+ enemies still the only way to get Purples? I was under the understanding that Purples were not available for Merits, which means that the fluctuation in market price for those Purples that you are complaining about has nothing to do with Merits

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Yes, defeating level 50+ enemies is still the only way to get purples. They are not available for merits. But everything else is available for merits, which caused a flow of influence from pool C recipes to purple recipes. The inflation was inevitable. I knew about it in time to buy a bunch of recipes at 40 million each which I could easily sell for 60 million now, maybe 70. I was planning to hold out for 80 million, but if I14 will make purples purchaseable with tickets, then I had better sell my purples right now. People in my position who already have that information have a distinct advantage over me.

I'm not going to cry about it, but Ogon is absolutely right when he talks about the market.

(On the other hand, Ogon, I think you're way off when you talk about the playerbase. Posi made one offhand comment early last year about how I13 might be called "all your base are belong to us" and there are still people griping that the devs lied to them and ripped them off and slapped them in the face because I13 didn't have very many base changes, and not all of the changes were improvements.)

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Can a "published" arc be edited by the owner? If so, does the arc's rating and status get reset?

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Yes, its called a re-publish and it will preserve ratings info.

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I'm sure beta testers are all over this, but doesn't that mean you could make a good arc, get good ratings, then change it to be full of porn and spam and upload it again? I've been wondering how you would handle the republishing thing, because any way you go with it seems full of pot holes.

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I have a question that I think I can keep short and concise.

The Mission Architect appears to be limited to some kind of virtual reality propagated by Architect Entertainment. What is the "reality" impact of this? Does that mean that all missions we create are all locked within the AE building and essentially "not real?"

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Yes. That's what it sounds like to me.

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Does that mean we can't pretend that the storyline we made is actually real, rather than just a work of fiction within fiction?

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How can they stop you from pretending?

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Awesome, awesome guide. This needs to be stickied, so we can all point at it whenever those people come in here.

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Stickies get unstuck and lost sometimes. I think it needs to go in the guides section. Also, I think you (that is, you KeepDistance, not you Dumple, even though I'm replying to Dumple's post) should keep a local copy of the whole thing, just in case the thread is lost in the new forums.

This thread is the answer to so many objections to the market. Of course, the people who have been unable to see those answers for the last couple of years will continue to be unable to see, but it's still a big beautiful block of evidence for anyone with their eyes open.

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The Architect, like the markets, will have their own dedicated servers. So I propose a corallary(sp?) question. Do the same market servers for the US also interact with the European servers? That may offer our best clue.

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Yes, the market goes across the ocean. You can buy something on Liberty that was sold on Defiant.

What about the chat system? That has its own server. Can you global friend a person on a European server? I've never tried, but I'm guessing the answer is no.

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All it said was that i have to wait till they give me a response and that was it.

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Sounds like a standard response to a bug report or petition.