Were you in such a hurry to post the first "Mission Architect" guide that you couldn't even be bothered to format it correctly for the forums out of fear that someone else might beat you to it?
I'd love to actually comment on the material you wrote about but
with all sorts
of odd line breaks, it makes it all a bit hard to read =/
^intentional, btw =)
-STEELE =)
Allied to all sides so that no matter what, I'll come out on top!
Oh, and Crimson demands you play this arc-> Twisted Knives (MA Arc #397769)
That's what happens when you type something out in Notepad with Word Wrap on, and then copy and paste it from there. Does strange things.
Seriously?
Should I write a guide about how to play Radiation/Radiation Brutes? How about Time/Dark Miasma Controllers?
Blue: ~Knockback Squad on Guardian~
Red: ~Undoing of Virtue on [3 guesses]~
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That's what happens when you type something out in Notepad with Word Wrap on, and then copy and paste it from there. Does strange things.
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I spent half an hour trying to dump all the line breaks. It finally looked fine in preview, and I pressed continue and SHAZAM! it was right back again. Thanks for the tip, I've already edited it.
Luerim
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Seriously?
Should I write a guide about how to play Radiation/Radiation Brutes? How about Time/Dark Miasma Controllers?
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Yes. It's about time.
This is speculation, concerns, and suggestions. This is not a guide.
At this point, a good guide would be a compilation of everything a dev said about MA. That would be helpful.
Speeding Through New DA Repeatables || Spreadsheet o' Enhancements || Zombie Skins: better skins for these forums || Guide to Guides
This guide has inspired me to write a broadsword/shield brute guide right now!
and no, i dont know if brutes will get broadsword... but i can dream can't I?
Whining about everything since 2006.
Ammo switching for Dual Pistols was my idea:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=135484
Heh.
Okay, I re-read it, and as someone who dabbles in modding for other games, pretty much everything here looks like good advice =)
#3 is something that I can relate to. Making something so wonderful and complicated, but then it doesn't work or it's too taxing for the existing system or it just can't be pulled off.. it's a real downer =(
Anyway, we'll see how it goes once we get I14 =)
-STEELE =)
Allied to all sides so that no matter what, I'll come out on top!
Oh, and Crimson demands you play this arc-> Twisted Knives (MA Arc #397769)
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That's what happens when you type something out in Notepad with Word Wrap on, and then copy and paste it from there. Does strange things.
[/ QUOTE ]
I spent half an hour trying to dump all the line breaks. It finally looked fine in preview, and I pressed continue and SHAZAM! it was right back again. Thanks for the tip, I've already edited it.
Luerim
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Yeah, if you write your forum posts like I do in Notepad... this is how you should do it. Go ahead and write it in Notepad with word wrap on so you can see what you're doing.
Then before you copy it, turn OFF word wrap and make sure that the PARAGRAPHS are all on "one line". If they're not, then delete the extra spaces to account. Then right click in the pad and choose Select All and copy it. Past it into the forums, and no more weirdness!
Perhaps I should write a guide on how to write guides? Or would that be too presumptuous? 
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Heh.
Okay, I re-read it, and as someone who dabbles in modding for other games, pretty much everything here looks like good advice =)
#3 is something that I can relate to. Making something so wonderful and complicated, but then it doesn't work or it's too taxing for the existing system or it just can't be pulled off.. it's a real downer =(
Anyway, we'll see how it goes once we get I14 =)
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Thank you very much for this. What I'd like to see is a strong community based around what we know is going to be there, and what we've experienced previously, and is ready to respond in a positive and beneficial way to this game we love so much.
I posted with the intention of setting up a support base for what we're not going to be able to do. There's always limitations, the pushing back of this to I14 is reflective of how strong the community's response is towards removing as few creative barriers as possible. It was a huge, brilliant, realistic response to a valued desire. The go-backs involved in marketing alone was a big step, sucking a good chunk of money into marketing to redesign.
I think that with a forward thinking mentality, we can minimalize the shock that many might find at trying to produce a storyline that other people want to experience. What tools are available outside of any eventual mission building experience? What can the support of a whole group of people produce to help those at a loss for one (relatively) small issue of decision or factual deficiency?
I just want to see people ready for the impending storm of complaints, ones that aren't going to be smashed by trollers and snarky hitmen. It'll be a learning experience for all of us. I'm damn well looking forward to it, and we can make the final experience better by being better prepared for it.
What I would love more than anything else? Some of those "trainees" for the Cimerora arcs hinted at in recent interviews train us on what they didn't get first off. What areas got them stuck in doing what they did? The system's going to be the same, let us have the potential to hit the ground running on this and let us have the ability to do a lot of support work for the Devs, and the flexibility to respond quickly.
Please.
Luerim
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Heh.
Okay, I re-read it, and as someone who dabbles in modding for other games, pretty much everything here looks like good advice =)
#3 is something that I can relate to. Making something so wonderful and complicated, but then it doesn't work or it's too taxing for the existing system or it just can't be pulled off.. it's a real downer =(
Anyway, we'll see how it goes once we get I14 =)
[/ QUOTE ]
Thank you very much for this. What I'd like to see is a strong community based around what we know is going to be there, and what we've experienced previously, and is ready to respond in a positive and beneficial way to this game we love so much.
I posted with the intention of setting up a support base for what we're not going to be able to do. There's always limitations, the pushing back of this to I14 is reflective of how strong the community's response is towards removing as few creative barriers as possible. It was a huge, brilliant, realistic response to a valued desire. The go-backs involved in marketing alone was a big step, sucking a good chunk of money into marketing to redesign.
I think that with a forward thinking mentality, we can minimalize the shock that many might find at trying to produce a storyline that other people want to experience. What tools are available outside of any eventual mission building experience? What can the support of a whole group of people produce to help those at a loss for one (relatively) small issue of decision or factual deficiency?
I just want to see people ready for the impending storm of complaints, ones that aren't going to be smashed by trollers and snarky hitmen. It'll be a learning experience for all of us. I'm damn well looking forward to it, and we can make the final experience better by being better prepared for it.
What I would love more than anything else? Some of those "trainees" for the Cimerora arcs hinted at in recent interviews train us on what they didn't get first off. What areas got them stuck in doing what they did? The system's going to be the same, let us have the potential to hit the ground running on this and let us have the ability to do a lot of support work for the Devs, and the flexibility to respond quickly.
Please.
Luerim
[/ QUOTE ]
Man, I want some of whatever you're smoking...
you get your stuff from Steve Jobs? He always had the best [censored]... 
Preliminary I14 Guide to using the Mission Architect. This is intended to be a work in progress, but there are basic things that, given my experience with a lot non-MMO creatures of this nature lend themselves to basic concepts and plans.
I'm throwing this out there as a list of things that can be addressed in very basic concepts and allow discussion among us as to help out community.
Ok. I know it's going to be MONTHS before I14 goes live. However, there's some reasonable basics we can work on, and this guide is intended to address those.
First of all, DON'T PANIC!. When something goes wrong, (and there's not a single soul, anywhere, in anything similar to this that would discount this advice) don't freak out. Please. There're numorous areas something can go wrong. More than I can count, and at my age, I can count pretty high, which is a good thing as those candles are starting to tickle my smoke alarm.
The first area of concern, probably long before publishing anything, is going to be De-bugging. Most likely, at first blush, there's going to be a walk-through available, much like the current SG-base thing. That's a guess, but it's existing tech, and is probably based on what they used to create the games mishs in the first place.
The compiler, or let's call it the "School Marm" is going to have a run over of what you just turned in. How intelligent this School Marm is going to be is beyond the scope of this Preliminary examination. It's like having a hall monitor tell you that you have to have your biscuit buttered before you can tell the school bully to dye his hair. "School Marm"'s job is going to be to tell you cannot do something. ("You can't have more than 2 attached beacons on one Teleporter!!!") How insightful this information is going to be remains to be seen. Chances are, however, that you've screwed up something in a very normal and usual way that you just didn't catch.
In my experience 90% of bugs are typos. The rest are logical issues you didn't catch the first time around. It's ok. We're a vocal and generally supportive community. Some of us LIVE for bugs, and helping other people fix them. And not all of us are [censored] about it. (A separate forum community for mish builders would be SWEET!!!)
After de-bugging, is the problem of what can be done with the tech given us and what we want to do with it. The decision to break I13 into two issues is going to catch most people's complaints up to this point. The hints of progress in this regard moving forward should grant us some promise of interesting tools. In the meantime, however, we're going to have to get creative.
I've been a member of a lot of odd creative groups. I've seen some amazing work come from a simple suggestion, or basic idea, and seen it expand like a fractal screensaver into things of beauty. NEVER BE AFRAID TO POST ABOUT WHAT'S GOING WRONG. There might be a work around.
There's 3 ways around any roadblock on a "mish" creation.
1) IT'S A BUG! KILL IT! KILL IT!
It sucks. I won't deny you that. You simply cannot do what you want to do because it just doesn't mesh with something else. Here's where creativity comes in. You have to be willing to let go of what you wanted to do and let what you can manage within the confines of what's available. It's like a poor scultor who wanted to design the perfect athlete in motion. In marble. Marble has nasty faultlines. The cheaper the marble, the more faults. You have to work around those, or you end up with a mass of marble rubble. Several Rennasance sculture works were limited by these, and are considered even more remarkable BECAUSE of the limitations in the medium.
2) Ignore it or enhance it.
If it's not mish-breaking, you might even be able to get lucky and have it benefit the mish. Some weird stuff might actually benefit your situation, or lead you down a road you hadn't planned for. There's a phrase in screenplay writers' jargon (actually applies to a lot of other fictional writing as well) called "hang a lantern on it", if all else fails. You cannot for the life of you figure out how to get a particular AI to do something you've weighted all the variables for, and synched the powers just right, but he still won't build-up before he tries to assassin strike your PCs. What do you do? You "Hang a Lantern on it"!
NPC1: NPC2, NPC3 seems out of sorts. I think he's developing a concience or something. He won't give it his all!
NPC2: Pah. Honor. Wants a fair fight.
OR!!!
Insert a new mish into an arc, or new goal in a pre-existing mish designed to deal with this. Maybe, if it's a tech NPC, their build up is based on a particular radioactive element. You can have a mish, or goal, to wipe out the element. If it's a magical character, you can have there be a counter charm that the PCs must find.
3) Redesign the mission.
Yeah, this bites the big jalepenos. I hate this one the most. This is the one that's going to separate the Heroes from the sidekicks. I have never liked this, but it inevitably ends up happening. You've got to remake your masterpiece into something that fits the medium you're working in. You have to suck it up and bully through something you think is less than perfect. Make it a different mission. It hurts, but it's neccessary if you get to this point.
Small sidenote: There is no perfect. Really. It's an illusion. If everyone was perfect, we'd all be Pulitzer prize winners and PhDs. Even Isaac Asimov, a man who wrote over 100 books in his life time (a VERY conservative measure based on recycled material) admitted that not every word he wrote was golden. If this missive misses the mark, then obviously I'm not perfect either, and quite frankly, I like that idea.
I hope ends up helping people, even if it just ends up a basic assistance guide and idea foundation.
I'm generally crappy with guides, so we'll see where this goes in the long run.
Luerim
(*edited: Word wrap... Who would have thought....)