Discussion: Issue 14: Mission Architect - FAQ

City of Heroes
Issue 14: Architect

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is Mission Architect?

1. Mission Architect is a new game system we have developed for the City of Heroes massively multiplayer game. It allows our players to create their own stories and share those stories with other players on our live servers. Creators can pick from hundreds of maps and thousands of characters. They can use existing characters or create their own custom enemies. They can get even more detailed and create full enemy groups, giving each enemy unique costumes and powers. We allow players to write all of the dialog for their story as well as decide on level of difficulty and enemy placement. We even give them the ability to trigger one mission goal off of another, creating a chain of events within a single mission. Each story can have up to five chapters or missions and each mission can hold up to a maximum of 25 achievable goals. For people who just want to play the user created content, we give them access to the mission browser that shows all the generated content. You can sort these stories by name, highest rated, lengthy and recently added. You can also filter content to show only those with specific ratings, arcs you have or haven’t played as well as the alignment of the story. As people play content, they’ll be able to rate that content from one to five stars. Creators will actually get in game benefits for making content that gets highly rated. We even offer a Dev Choice and Hall of Fame standing for the best of the best.

2. How does it work?

1. Players create content in game through a computer terminal within one of the Architect Entertainment buildings. Architect Entertainment is the name of an in-game company that’s developed this type of ‘simulated experience’ for heroes and villains of Paragon City and the Rogue Isles. You can think of this like a holo-deck or a simulated mission tool. Players go to these facilities that are spread through out most of our zones and interact with a computer that walks through the creation process. Here is where they pick all of their options for a mission as well as write all the dialog and build their custom characters. Once they’ve gotten their story together, they can test it out and see how it plays. Once they’ve gotten it perfect, they can publish the story up to our Arc Server. This server is cross shard and cross game. So, any content published will be seen by everyone on every server, regardless of where they play.

3. What rewards are we giving to the players and creators?

1. We’re granting full experience (XP) and influence rewards for defeating enemies in player made content. We’re also giving players tickets in place of random drops. They can take these tickets to an Architect ticket vendor and redeem them for various in game rewards, such as enhancements, recipes and salvage. We’re also allowing players to purchase unlockable content with their tickets. They’ll be able to get maps, costume pieces and different characters.

4. What special features does Mission Architect have?

1. At the high level we allow you to create your own stories and share them with others in the game.
2. You can build your own custom characters as well as full enemy groups, giving each one a unique costume, powers, name and background.
3. We allow players to link mission goals together, creating a chain of events in a single mission.
4. We offer rewards for the players who develop well received content (Hall of Fame and Dev Choice).
5. Every published story is visible to each and every one of our players.

5. Can you talk more about Dev Choice vs. Hall of Fame?

1. The Hall of Fame is where the best player rated content goes. To get to this rank you need to have over a 1000 votes with an average of 5 stars (we round up). Getting into the Hall of Fame changes your standing in the mission browser, moving it further up the queue.
2. Becoming a Dev Choice story happens when one of us (the developers) sees content that we feel best represents what Architect can be, good story and fun gameplay. Getting into Dev Choice actually elevates you beyond Hall of Fame and gives your mission the same sort of rewards and drops you would get outside of Architect. The only difference being that you get a ticket bonus at the end of a mission as opposed to an experience bonus.
3. We also have a third tier of stories which we will talk about at a later date.

6. How are you dealing with inappropriate content?

1. We’ve worked very closely with our customer service department to develop systems for this. In the end, we implemented a number of different systems. We have language filters that check for bad words and won’t let you publish them until you remove them. We’re also allowing players to flag content for inappropriateness. We also track all users and flags for any potential vote griefing.

7. What’s appealing to the players of user generated content?

1. We’re creating a system where the best content rises to the top of the list and everything else is filtered to the bottom. Players can sort by rank as well as what they have and haven’t played. When playing in someone else’s content you’ll continue to earn full XP and influence. We’ve replaced the random drop system with a ticketing system. Players collect tickets as they go through content. Once they’ve collected enough tickets they can go to a ticket vendor and purchase exactly what they want as far as rewards go.

8. How long does it take to make a decent five mission storyarc?

1. You can create a single mission rather quickly, in less then ten or fifteen minutes. However, to truly craft something unique and excellent, you’ll have to spend a decent amount of time in the tool. It could take someone a couple of days of to write, build and test something really good.

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First

OK, this sounds really cool. Questions I would have are:

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?

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?

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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The City of Heroes Community is a special one and I will always look fondly on my times arguing, discussing and playing with you all. Thanks and thanks to the developers for a special experience.

Second?

Edit: Nice write up

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Wow this is really wicked! I cannot wait till this comes out, I am looking forward to playing all the new content.

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Virtue: @Santorican

Dark/Shield Build Thread

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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It sounds like a great issue... if it works. *cue dramatic music* ;P

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S.thug ((level 50 Invul/ss tank Pinnacle))
Wild Childs ((Level 50 Nin/SR Stalker. Virtue))
Quote="Not Racist. Not violent. Just choosing to no longer be silent."

My understanding is that the only way to run MA content will be to go to the AE buildings. Will there be a SG-base interface?

Was I completely mistaken in remembering that we were going to be able to create our own contacts for our arcs? This seemed like an ambitious idea, but one I really had hoped to see.

Again, amazing update, this issue looks to be pure, gold-plated win!

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[ QUOTE ]
6. How are you dealing with inappropriate content?
We’ve worked very closely with our customer service department to develop systems for this. In the end, we implemented a number of different systems. We have language filters that check for bad words and won’t let you publish them until you remove them. We’re also allowing players to flag content for inappropriateness. We also track all users and flags for any potential vote griefing.

[/ QUOTE ]

how can you grief a vote?

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[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
6. How are you dealing with inappropriate content?
We’ve worked very closely with our customer service department to develop systems for this. In the end, we implemented a number of different systems. We have language filters that check for bad words and won’t let you publish them until you remove them. We’re also allowing players to flag content for inappropriateness. We also track all users and flags for any potential vote griefing.

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how can you grief a vote?

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If there's Drama between SGs, they could all rate each others' missions low, or spam "omg this is inappropriate" flagging.

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@Mindshadow

Influence/Infamy, Merits and now Architect Tickets. HMMM

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A very sad story about War Witch and the neglected kitty. http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=219670

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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[ QUOTE ]
3. What rewards are we giving to the players and creators?

We’re granting full experience (XP) and influence rewards for defeating enemies in player made content. We’re also giving players tickets in place of random drops. They can take these tickets to an Architect ticket vendor and redeem them for various in game rewards, such as enhancements, recipes and salvage. We’re also allowing players to purchase unlockable content with their tickets. They’ll be able to get maps, costume pieces and different characters.

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First...so tickets instead of actual drops...like games at ChuckECheese?...ok

Second...purchase unlockable content? Costume pieces?
Are these MA unlockables or current unlockables? SAme question for costumes...is this MA or current in-game (like roman costumes, Valentine's, etc)

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seems like an awsome system. I actually wasnt looking forward to the MA system, but after reading about it with the exact details it seems like something i would enjoy being part of. Playing other people's missions is going to be the best part of all for me. If others can make their own "baddies" there is limitless possibilities for people!

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" I don't let me kids play on the Freedom Server" -Oya

Once there is a large enough database of player made missions, i forsee us logging in, and MA grinding from 1 to 50.

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I'm a nucular engineerer, not an Anglish Proffesseur. I don't have to no how to spell.

Wow, at first glance it looks like you guys did a great job with this thing.


But..
"At the high level we allow you to create your own stories and share them with others in the game."

WTH does 'at the high level' mean?

And I hope the rewards are equal to what you would get running regular content or this will get old real fast.

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[ QUOTE ]
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.

[ QUOTE ]
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?

[/ QUOTE ]

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.

[/ QUOTE ]

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.

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"We all lose in the end, that is the intention" --Emanuel Lasker

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

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Virtue - @Kabuto & @Kabutops
Main heroes:
Dark/Psy/Psy Defender
Grav/Storm/Power Controller
Ice/Storm/Ice Controller
Plant/Rad/Psi Controller
Earth/Rad/Earth Controller
Main Villains:
Ice/Cold/Sharks Corruptor
Elec/Shield Brute
Fortunata/Soul Widow

After seeing the screenshots linked to from the Updater, I am not a LOT more excited about the Mission Architect than I ever was, and that's saying something when you consider I found this to be one of the coolest things yet even before. I'm slightly bothered by the tickets mechanic and the unlockables (are those per character or per account?), but giving full rewards for enemies defeated is good enough for me. Can't wait to try this out

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[ QUOTE ]
Creators can pick from hundreds of maps and thousands of characters. They can use existing characters or create their own custom enemies. They can get even more detailed and create full enemy groups, giving each enemy unique costumes and powers. We allow players to write all of the dialog for their story as well as decide on level of difficulty and enemy placement. We even give them the ability to trigger one mission goal off of another, creating a chain of events within a single mission. Each story can have up to five chapters or missions and each mission can hold up to a maximum of 25 achievable goals.


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Okay. I just cheered out loud (really). This is looking AWESOME!

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Players' Choice Awards: Best Dual-Origin Level Range Arc!

It's a new era, the era of the Mission Architect. Can you save the Universe from...

The Invasion of the Bikini-clad Samurai Vampiresses from Outer Space? - Arc ID 61013

[ QUOTE ]
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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"We all lose in the end, that is the intention" --Emanuel Lasker

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Will there be a SG-base interface?

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Not initially.

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"We all lose in the end, that is the intention" --Emanuel Lasker

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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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"We all lose in the end, that is the intention" --Emanuel Lasker

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

[/ QUOTE ]

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.

[/ QUOTE ]

Good play having someone answer the questions so quickly.

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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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"We all lose in the end, that is the intention" --Emanuel Lasker

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

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes

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"We all lose in the end, that is the intention" --Emanuel Lasker