Discussion: Issue 14: Mission Architect - FAQ
By
8_Ball,
Posted on: 2009-02-26 13:02 in Developers' Corner
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6. How are you dealing with inappropriate content?
- Weve 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 wont let you publish them until you remove them. Were also allowing players to flag content for inappropriateness. We also track all users and flags for any potential vote griefing.
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Is the inappropriate language filter that will be applied to player generated content the same as the current in-game profanity filter?
I ask because I'd hate to be denied the ability to publish, simply because one of my characters refers to himself as a 'god', but that's a word that has been flagged by the chat filter as profanity for as long as I've been playing this game.
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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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Well, you could always write a story arc that begins like it's taking place in the virtual reality, and then the villain comes along and tampers with it or something. I'm sure there are ways to get around this conceptual issue.
I'll try to answer two of these...
As a kind of continuation of the previous: Are we able to import existing enemy types into our custom groups? I think I read that this is possible, just looking for a final word.
Per Pohsyb,
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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).
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Conversely, will we be able to add out own custom enemies to existing groups? E.g. I want to add a "Technician" lieutenant to the Freakshow group that can heal them. Is this possible?
See above.
Story Arcs I created:
Every Rose: (#17702) Villainous vs Legacy Chain. Forget Arachnos, join the CoT!
Cosplay Madness!: (#3643) Neutral vs Custom Foes. Heroes at a pop culture convention!
Kiss Hello Goodbye: (#156389) Heroic vs Custom Foes. Film Noir/Hardboiled detective adventure!
If I understand correctly, you can import Romulus into your mission and give him different powers, and you can create a custom creature that looks close to Romulus and choose powers for it similar to what the ingame Romulus has.
Mix and match those two, and you can essentially reskin Romulus.
Story Arcs I created:
Every Rose: (#17702) Villainous vs Legacy Chain. Forget Arachnos, join the CoT!
Cosplay Madness!: (#3643) Neutral vs Custom Foes. Heroes at a pop culture convention!
Kiss Hello Goodbye: (#156389) Heroic vs Custom Foes. Film Noir/Hardboiled detective adventure!
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Per Pohsyb,
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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).
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Ah, right. I must have forgotten or missed that post. Thanks for pointing it out.
*edits post to nullify those queries*
Justice Hunter, 50 Inv/SS Tank
Slenszic, 50 Sword/Energy Stalker
MA Arc IDs: 1355, 2341, 2350
Pohsyb, some foes (like lost bosses) yield experience bonuses due to the danger they pose. Some of these are quite large bonuses at it.
Will these bonuses still apply inside of the MA?
Hrm... guess that particular question got buried:
It's looking like this is a no, from the phrasing of answers to questions that skirt the periphery of this one, but:
Is it possible to give NPC-only powers (like Warwolf transformations, or the Tsoo Sorceror teleport) to our Custom Critters?
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
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I just have a couple quick question. I know Castle had mentioned earlier (some weeks prior to today) that some powers wouldn't be available, such as SoA and Kheldian powersets... however the Massively article has this as a bulletpoint:
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Give enemies any powers you want. (Emphasis added)
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Has the position stated by Castle earlier changed? Or are Kheldian powersets still unavailable for custom minions? Is there any chance, if they are NOT being included now, that they WILL be included reasonably soon in the future? One of my arc ideas necessitates access to the Warshade powersets.
(*hopes that they WILL be available!*)
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This is a bit misleading. You can chose 2 powersets that include almost all powersets available to players, but you can mix-match them in ways not available to players. (Ex: Fire Blast + Invulnerability ).
Not as great of a bullet point, I know. We would love to expand this system further, but we cannot by release.
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I can't remember if this is true or not, but I thought it was said that MM powers would not be feasible for MA. But in one of the screenshots, I see thugs as a primary.
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Also, your playerbase is by and large pretty mature. Telling everyone "Yes, you will be able to buy Pool A,BC,D,E and Purple Recipes as well as Randoms at the Ticket Vendor", and then at some later date deciding you don't want C and D in there, wouldn't cause the kind of chaos you seem to think it would. Especially if you just plainly stated that you use that information at your own risk, that it could change, many of us are adults here and can quite easily deal with that.
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Experience has demonstartated that many of us aren't that mature. Whenever the devs announce something with the caveat: It may change, and it does... well... there's alota screaming. I too would like the information, but I can accept a position where in it's better to insulate oneself from possible fallout as long as possible.
In a few weeks Beta will open up (hopefully) and we'll have all the info we need (with the standard caveats). We're just gonna have to ride out the storm of people playing havoc with the market 
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Well, you could always write a story arc that begins like it's taking place in the virtual reality, and then the villain comes along and tampers with it or something. I'm sure there are ways to get around this conceptual issue.
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But that means your mission can never become canon: it will never move out of the virtual world into the real one because its concept depends on beginning in virtual space.
Not necessarily. For all we know, that might someday be revealed to be the exact premise of the MArc.
In any case, there is always the possiblity of rewriting a story to adhere to canon.
Story Arcs I created:
Every Rose: (#17702) Villainous vs Legacy Chain. Forget Arachnos, join the CoT!
Cosplay Madness!: (#3643) Neutral vs Custom Foes. Heroes at a pop culture convention!
Kiss Hello Goodbye: (#156389) Heroic vs Custom Foes. Film Noir/Hardboiled detective adventure!
I have a real question pohsyb:
- Will Purple Recipes be available to purchase with tickets?
They are Ultra Rare Pool A drops. They would be expected to eventually drop when fighting level 50 enemies. Even if they are very expensive, having a guaranteed way of obtaining them would be a huge benefit for Mission Architect. (They should be available for like 500+ merits a piece, but that's a different topic.)
It makes sense for them to be there, though. We're supposed to be able to get any of the loot we would normally have access to in a mission. Purple drops, while Ultra Rare, are a natural occurrence for level 50 content.
Please say yes (and mean it).
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What happens to arcs if the player who created them goes inactive?
Can trial accounts use the MA? ( Better not... )
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I'm still on my first cup of coffee, and haven't been able to kindle the CT reactor yet this morning, so apologies if it's obvious to everyone but me, but what am I missing? What's the problem with letting trial accounts use the MA?
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Freak Slicer: Oh no! It's Captain Dynamic!
Tank Smasher: Don't worry! We'll mop the floor with him! He can't afford all the best enhancements like he could if he'd only bought 10 million influence from www.stupidgoldsellingwebsite.com for only $10!
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OMG it's diabolical, I never even thought of that...
I'm torn between amusement at the idea and horror...
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Well, you could always write a story arc that begins like it's taking place in the virtual reality, and then the villain comes along and tampers with it or something. I'm sure there are ways to get around this conceptual issue.
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But that means your mission can never become canon: it will never move out of the virtual world into the real one because its concept depends on beginning in virtual space.
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Not true I bet. The 'cannon' could become that it gets altered by some villain, thus making it real. So the canon would be that the VR troopers mission became real. Otherwise even the villain monkeying with it was VR.
"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern." Lord Acton
Madam Enigma's History
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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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Awesome I was worried about this since we have unlockables I might want to add later on, plus any updates made to MA will allow us to expand/improve arc's w/o affecting ratings.
Does this also apply to Dev's choice or will these be locked in place as is?
Holy FFF-Wow! That's a glorious flood of dev information right there! It sounds like I'll have even more fun with this than I thought I would! 
All that is planned fails. All that is born dies.
All that is built crumbles. This will always be true.
But memories remain, And that is beautiful.
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Can a single mission arc have more than one contact? For example, after completing Mission 1 from Contact A, you are directed to Contact B who gives you Mission 2?
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No.
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Will there be an active prohibition against one contact directing (via normal text) onto another contact (thereby chaining the story arcs)?
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Also, your playerbase is by and large pretty mature. Telling everyone "Yes, you will be able to buy Pool A,BC,D,E and Purple Recipes as well as Randoms at the Ticket Vendor", and then at some later date deciding you don't want C and D in there, wouldn't cause the kind of chaos you seem to think it would. Especially if you just plainly stated that you use that information at your own risk, that it could change, many of us are adults here and can quite easily deal with that.
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Experience has demonstartated that many of us aren't that mature. Whenever the devs announce something with the caveat: It may change, and it does... well... there's alota screaming. I too would like the information, but I can accept a position where in it's better to insulate oneself from possible fallout as long as possible.
In a few weeks Beta will open up (hopefully) and we'll have all the info we need (with the standard caveats). We're just gonna have to ride out the storm of people playing havoc with the market
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I would like an example of this experience that has shown us. As far as I can tell none exist.
And the point is that the damage is already being done. I'm one of the people playing games with the market, it is part of the game I enjoy. I don't enjoy a group of people benefiting from information that I don't have.
The fact that the Market has moved based on changes in I-13 and I-14 prove that the information is not staying in the Closed Beta. So essentially, people who either A) Should be testing content, or B) Shouldn't know what is going on in Closed Beta but have been told something from someone who broke the NDA, get to have an advantage in the market mini-game.
I know that Open Beta will happen, I know that it is still possible to make Inf in the market before the issue comes. That is absolutely 100% not the point.
It is impossible to deny, that people who were buying Purple's for 35mil during the last Closed Beta, had an obvious advantage over people buying them at the 55mil price they went to when it went open. In terms of market speculating (this issue I am concerned with here, as it affects what I like to do in the game), they were able to make more profit, and invest more with a lower risk/reward profile, than someone who didn't have that info.
And for the record, every single announcement that the Devs make is accompanied by a huge outburst of positive and negative comments. So what?
And the fact is, that the same basic argument, "the players can't handle it" was used to keep Real Numbers out of the game for years. It was the wrong argument then, and it is the wrong argument now. Some small percentage of the playerbase will freak out if something changed from the announced to the real version, but they are alienating at least one customer right now trying to keep that other guy happy.
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$himher
$heshe
$hisher
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Some of these need to be used in existing missions. It always amuses me when my female character is called "him".
[/ QUOTE ]Some missions do, some missions don't. The devs seem a bit reluctant to go back and change old missions... sometimes just because it's too much work going through all the old missions and looking for stuff like that, and their time could be better spend elsewhere... and sometimes because they don't want to mess with the work of people who no longer work there.
But it IS used in some existing missions. Just not some of the older ones.
Will outdoor mission maps be available?
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Hrm... guess that particular question got buried:
It's looking like this is a no, from the phrasing of answers to questions that skirt the periphery of this one, but:
Is it possible to give NPC-only powers (like Warwolf transformations, or the Tsoo Sorceror teleport) to our Custom Critters?
[/ QUOTE ]Kinda answered in pohsyb's response to another power question, but I'd guess no. We get to choose two powersets preloaded with powers to give to our custom foes. We won't be able to pick and choose powers... so if there isn't a powerset that includes the Warwolf transformation, we won't be able to use it.
HOWEVER, looking at the screenshots, we actually have THREE power choices. The two sets, and a travel power. So I'd guess that if you choose Teleport as a critter's travel power, it would probably be the same as Tsoo Sorcerer teleports.
Hmm, will it be possible to set flags and conditionals in the MA?
Currently the devs use hidden badges as the flags, which would seem to work fine for this (just limit it to some number of badges).
Then you could do something like:
Click (Object) Text "you found blah blah" set flag "Blah Blah Found" 1
Later
If (Flag "Blah blah" == 1)
Text You found the hidden clue!
else
Text If feels like you missed something.
fi
Even better would be if you could use this to create branching missions, shame that branching missions have already been confirmed as not in the MA.
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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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Sorry pohsyb, but you just killed any interest I had in the MA.
It was the perfect opportunity to fix several mistakes and oversights re: Defeat Badges, but now? Meh. No real interest in it. That's not to say I don't recognize and appreciate the fact that a LOT of work has went into it, but two steps forward, one back IMO.
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If we are able to make maps just to get badges easily, what is the point of badges in the first place?
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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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Sorry pohsyb, but you just killed any interest I had in the MA.
It was the perfect opportunity to fix several mistakes and oversights re: Defeat Badges, but now? Meh. No real interest in it. That's not to say I don't recognize and appreciate the fact that a LOT of work has went into it, but two steps forward, one back IMO.
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If we are able to make maps just to get badges easily, what is the point of badges in the first place?
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Not getting into it again, but you still have to defeat <x> number for them. There's no difference between beating 1000 monkies on Monkey Island or defeating 1000 monkies in a MA map, you've still beaten 1000 monkies. The point of them is to show that you have beaten <x> number, the badge makes no distinction on how, when, why, or where you defeated them.
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$himher
$heshe
$hisher
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Some of these need to be used in existing missions. It always amuses me when my female character is called "him".