pohsyb

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If we get into an MA mission that turns out to be "Rescue the 25 Fusionette clones", can we abandon it as cleanly as we can an Ouroboros mission? Will we be able to just quit (and not get the shiny, of course), and not have to use Drop Mission, or have an uncompleted mission in our list?

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Yes.

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Are the tickets that you get from playing an arc the same as the tickets that the creator gets from other people playing and ranking their arc?

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Yes.

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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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Can failed / successful mission arc in two different directions?

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Not at release.

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Has a choice been made if temp powers will be allowed to be issued, even if it last just as long as the mission does?

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Also, Not at release.

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Will the MA affect Defeat badges? If I make a mission with the Cabal, can a villian earn the defeat cabal badge?

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No, No.

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Could we get some details about what will be able to be purchased?

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Not yet.

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Let me try again: Is the whole Mission Architect a big virtual reality?

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Oh well its [REDACTED] there there is [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] (^_^)b

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I've heard both the terms "unlock" and "purchase" used for "extra" content in the MA. Is the latter term just another way of saying unlockable, or will we actually have to BUY certain maps/items?

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I meant exchanging architect tickets at the architect vendor in all cases.

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Also, if custom missions are shareable pre-publishing, there are unlocked items/maps within and the other player does not have said objects or maps unlocked, what happens? Will they be in a read-only state, able to edit but not add, or unable to do anything at all?

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They can read and edit, but will not be able to test or publish until the arc is valid for that account.

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

That could be both good and bad, I suppose. On the one hand, it kind of bugs me that my duel between my namesake hero and his signature villain won't be "real." On the other hand, then I don't have to worry about writing some stupid, impossible plot and have it disproved by canon because it's not "real."

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Uhh...

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will we get in-game support for emailing those files? or some other transfer system, like maybe a SG version of FileFront?

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No

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So could we make a custom enemy group that is all pre-existing critters from various factions? Like have a group with Trolls, Circle, Council and Igneous critters (as long as they're in the same level range)?

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Yes

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1) How far do you round up? Is it 4.5 or higher = 5 stars?


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I don't know

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2) Are you going to be correcting for weird human behavior like people who only give the minimum or maximum value, never give ratings above or below the midpoint, or rate every single arc the exact same value?


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Not yet.

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3) Are you guys seriously psyched about this?

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I'm crazy like Malaise o.0!

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How will level scaling work? Will every mission automatically scale to your current level (+ difficulty, team size, etc.) or will it be predetermined by the "architect"?

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This is complicated. Every critter has a level range where they are valid. When you make a mission, all of the level ranges must overlap at some point. If you are outside this level range when you go to play the mission you will be brought up or down to the level rang of the mission.

Example, I use critters A (1-54), B (34-45) and C (40-48). The level range of the mission is (40-45).

If I am level 5, I will play mission at level 40.
If I am level 50, I will play mission at level 45.
If I am level 42 I will play at level 42.
If I am level 5, but have set my difficulty to max, I will play at level 38.


Note: I said mission here, not arc, each mission has an independent level range.

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Is there a Translucency option in case we wish to expand upon the Shadow Shard Reflections?

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No

Ahh, Exact, you've hit your quota!

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Are there any enemy factions that people would need to unlock to be able to use?

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Yes

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Is there a limit to how many AVs/EBs can be in a mission?

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Yes, the amount of spawn placements on the map.

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Can we save costumes from this editor? And how about saving whole villain groups for convenient swappage between, oh lets say SG mates for thematic nemesis groups?

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Yes

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pohsyb, if we already have unlocked booster or unlockable content for our characters (Cyborg pack, talsorian weapons, Roman costume pieces, etc.) do we have to "buy" those items for the custom critter maker with tickets, or will they already be considered unlocked?

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Unlocking costume parts for the Architect will be mostly independent from unlocking parts for your characters.

Some things that are already account wide rewards like the Cyborg pack you will may not need to buy from the architect vendor, but having a Talsorian weapon unlocked on your character will not allow you to use that part in the Architect.

There are two main reasons for this, one is to make what you are able to in the architect consistent from character to character (there was much pain and confusion when unlocked parts were per character).

Second, its required for some parts which are mutally exclusive. Talsorian weapons are a good example, because one character cannot unlock all the different weapon types. But if you buy the "Talsorian Weapon Pack" you can now create a custom villain gorup which utilizes every weapon.

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Can you make av level bosses?

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Yes

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Are there any context sensitive dialogue options available to us (different dialogue based on character gender, origin, badges, souvys, mission progress etc...)? Or if not, is it a possibility for later on?

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It will be somehting like this:

$name
$class
$origin
$supergroup
$level
$himher
$heshe
$hisher

Example:
Oh no! its the mighty $class $name! Get $himher before $heshe can stop us with $hisher powerful $origin abilities!

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Stupid question, but can you have more than one type of minion/lieutenant/boss for each custom villain group?

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Yes

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Second...purchase unlockable content? Costume pieces?
Are these MA unlockables or current unlockables?

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Yes, but the costume unlockables apply only to the custom critter maker. You will be able to buy something like "Talsorian Weapon Pack" and then be able to make custom critters using those weapons. When you purchase a mission architect unlockable, its effect is account wide.

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What I want to know is will there be a time limit on how often you can publish/unpublish an arc?

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Yes, but its measured in seconds and only to throttle network traffic.

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Will there be a SG-base interface?

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Not initially.

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Will you be able to edit the costumes of current mob classes and inherit all the other properties of said mobs?

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No. You can put pre-existing critters into custom villain groups or make a custom character, but we will not have editing of pre-existing critters (at least for first release).

Custom characters use player costume pieces.

I'm sure this will come up again and often, but critters have different animation rigs with different abilities. If you were to give a warwolf energy blast he might look ok or he might shoot beams out his shoulder without moving at all. This is not trivial to fix.

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1) Do you earn an end of mission and end of story arc bonus (exp and inf) like you do with normal story arc? Or do you only earn tickets?

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Using the mission architect its possible to make missions that complete or can be completed almost instantly so having rewards for mission complete becomes an automatic exploit. However, there is a ticket-only bonus at the end of mission which is proportional to the amount of tickets earned during the mission. If you don't earn any tickets, you don't get a bonus.

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2) It appears that you don't drop salvage or common IOs or regular enhancements from enemy defeats. Should this system come to be very popular and start to drain away supply from the markets, do you have a system in place to correct?

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I think you will like whats in store! Ha! I kill me ^^;

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3) Likewise, have you considered how this system will interact with the merit system you added in the very last issue? It seems you're adding a new form of reward system on top of the several we have right now? I fear that characters will wind up with multiple streams of rewards none of which would add up to as much as having a unified reward system.

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Each system has its own strengths and weaknesses, but the ticket drop rates and prices were carefully calculated to be equivilent to playing the game proper.