Discussion: Issue 14: Mission Architect - FAQ
By
8_Ball,
Posted on: 2009-02-26 13:02 in Developers' Corner
I suspect the Hall of Fame setting will be set unreachably high (I actually expected it to be turned off) for the first couple months while the devs data mine to determine what they REALLY want. I suppose they want it on so that people will at least try, but I'm sure they'd rather nothing gets in than have their permanent pool flooded with subpar entries.
That doesn't mean it might not be a bad idea to title all of your missions "Naruto vs Master Chief" though.
Will we be able to purchase the ability to add missions to our arcs?
Also will the signature characters and villains be available to put in a mission, Clockwork King, Doc Vahz, etc? or ONLY custom made ones?
And with Arachnos, I assume they will be selectable as an enemy grou, but with VEATS we have the ability to customize their costumes, will that be available.. it's kinda something my arc is hinging on! *nervous smile!*
C'mon, magenta and fuschia Arachnos is win, especially when you have to Feng Shui Serge's apartment in order to mess with his chi!
COMING SOON: A new Epic that will change the way you see Arachnos...
Brought to you by @Equation
[ QUOTE ]
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.
[/ QUOTE ]
That seems a touch monofocus to me. I understand your feeling that way, but... well, if your real interest was in creating missions full of the mobs you needed to defeat to claim badges, it seems unlikely you really were interested in creating missions. It wouldn't take a lot of creativity to figure out which outdoor map had the fewest obstacles and the most space for mobs and load it down with redcaps.
I realize -- different strokes and all that. Still, it seems like a weird thing to hinge all your enjoyment of a feature on.
(Not replying to anyone in particular)
1) Can we include non-targetable buff/debuff items or environmental effects.
If we can are they considered part of certain maps or are they just selectable for any map?
What I'm referring to is the CoT crystal spammers, those patches of blackness in some Croatoa missions that debuff you... (though theyre never placed close enough to a group to actually impact a party) ... magma pits or those violent winds that knock you about in one of the CoV missions ....
2) Can we create save the hostage missions? If we can create a hostage mission, are hostages customizable?
Can I have my sg play through the "Save (insert my characters name here)" mission... when they get to the hostage will I be standing there (having re-created myself) and will AI-me be able to to follow them to the door or help them with the rest of the mission?
Questions aside I love this issue. Small but full of wholesome goodness 
[ QUOTE ]
The problem to me is if you let people have 10 arcs they will make 10 arcs, reguardless of quality. Then anyone who wants to play the arcs will have a tougher time actually finding these missions, which isn't good for anybody.
[/ QUOTE ]
But that's when having a rating system comes into its own. If you can sort the billion arcs by average rating, and filter your sort to "arcs developed in the last week", for example, then you'll get all the newer arcs that have been rated 4-5 stars right up top. This makes having a 4 star rating an advantage instead of a disappointment. As it is, either you get 5 stars or you have to consider putting a bullet in your 4 star arc that gets a few hundred people playing it a week because you want to put something new up.
No matter what happens, there's going to be a ton of dross. If getting 5 stars is ultimately unattainable, you either sacrifice creating new content to keep your popular but old content up or you yank down something people like and give up any chance of building more than a couple of related arcs.
[ QUOTE ]
While a small number, hopefully three will ensure people put a real effort into the ones they do, which makes the quality of the system as a whole better and thus makes it more likely people will use it, which then makes it even MORE likely that people will play your story.
[/ QUOTE ]
Either you get a strong enough rating to keep your story up high, or you get buried in the masses. There will be hundreds -- thousands -- of story arcs on this thing within two weeks. There will likely be 500 good story arcs copied over from beta on launch day. (And huzzah for that. As a player I'm looking forward to devouring some of these storylines.)
3 arcs is just too limiting. There isn't room to build multiple storylines on a theme, and there isn't room to build multiple one-storyline-themes. I can accept that we might need extraordinary measures to get more. (Vet rewards, redeeming astronomical numbers of tickets, or just plain plunking down cash at the NC barrelhead.) But there should be those options in the game, somewhere.
Scholarman is saying everything I wanted to. So, er, yeah -- what he said.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
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.
[/ QUOTE ]
That seems a touch monofocus to me. I understand your feeling that way, but... well, if your real interest was in creating missions full of the mobs you needed to defeat to claim badges, it seems unlikely you really were interested in creating missions. It wouldn't take a lot of creativity to figure out which outdoor map had the fewest obstacles and the most space for mobs and load it down with redcaps.
I realize -- different strokes and all that. Still, it seems like a weird thing to hinge all your enjoyment of a feature on.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, it is somewhat of a monofocus, I realize that. But like I also said, it would also fix things like the metagaming needed for Coldblooded on Heroes, or the extremely limited time frame for Bane of Danaan for Villains, or to fix oversights like the Outcasts, etc. It's more than a matter of just "Get The Badges", but rather an opportunity to improve the process for defeats, because I for one, do not find resetting a single mission 100 times to get Weatherman anywhere NEAR enjoyable.
I would like to be able to title my /FA Brute "Volcanic" (from the Pumicite defeat badge). I've got a couple Heroes that "The Mongoose" would be neat on. But now, that's never going to happen.
I have no ability to create anything that others would consider "enjoyable". I have no talent at writing stories. And since I know flat out and beyond a shadow of a doubt, nothing I would make would ever enter the Hall of Fame or Dev Choice, why spend what free time I have to play, on making subpar missions?
This is everything I hoped it would contain and more. I can't wait to get my hands on it.
Now if I could only get in to the Beta
Suriel- Scrapper MA/SR
Star Centurion- Peacebringer
War Forger- Blaster EB/Devices
Dedjinn- Stalker CL/DA
Cycnus- Mastermind Mercs/Traps
I am really looking forward to this I am by no means a creative genius or anything like that but I look forward to just being able to play with missions if I am bored and looking at everyone elses submissions
[ QUOTE ]
because I for one, do not find resetting a single mission 100 times to get Weatherman anywhere NEAR enjoyable.
[/ QUOTE ]
O.o On my heroic main I got that badge by hunting in the hollows. It was fun, and I did so on the way to missions. Or more precisely on the way to attempt to get to one mission because I didn't realize a simple fact... that enemies would respawn quickly during the turf war. For my other characters with the badge, they got it easily enough too without resetting the same mission over and over. It's called hunting in the zones.
"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern." Lord Acton
Madam Enigma's History
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
because I for one, do not find resetting a single mission 100 times to get Weatherman anywhere NEAR enjoyable.
[/ QUOTE ]
O.o On my heroic main I got that badge by hunting in the hollows. It was fun, and I did so on the way to missions. Or more precisely on the way to attempt to get to one mission because I didn't realize a simple fact... that enemies would respawn quickly during the turf war. For my other characters with the badge, they got it easily enough too without resetting the same mission over and over. It's called hunting in the zones.
[/ QUOTE ]
Except for the fact that Outcasts only appear in one mission in all of Villains...
And only then do you get 3 bosses if you have a full team of 8 on the second or fourth difficulty. If solo, you only get 1, hence the "resetting a single mission 100 times".
Separate question unrelated to badges...
Are powersets, such as Aurora Borealis' going to be available for usage on custom critters? For those unaware, it's similar to Energy Blast, but using a white-colored blast, rather than blue.
Few more questions,
1) While it obviously will not be at release, is there at least a plan for a workable map editor? cutscene editor?
2) When creating custom npcs; and choosing their two powersets; Will we be able to choose specific powers in a powerset robotics/forcefield for example: process of elimination? This NPC won't use photongrenade, but can still choose to use force bolt, etc. Essentially disabling powers in a powerset, if not at release, is this a stretchgoal for the near future?
3) Will we be able to give custom npcs pool powers? (Aid Self) or epics (Mu Guardian)? or will we sorta have to "cheat" using pre existing powers to emulate it.
4) Will all AVs have ptods default or will that be a on/off option?
Thx
Hmm... yeah, very very excited about this feature.
Couple of questions, though, also on the custom NPC powers topic... how exactly is that going to work?
Will we be able to give custom NPCs the powersets of existing NPCs, just copying and pasting?
Will we be able to use NPC-only powers (like the triggered-on-death transformations and spawnings, or Hercules Titans merging, sapper beams, or emanators) for custom NPCs?
Will we be able to combine powersets that players can't for custom NPCs, for example like the Swift Steel (Katana/Kin) Tsoo bosses?
How much control will we have over the custom NPCs' stats? Will we be able to give them, say 30% energy resistance, or boost their recharge so that they can spam a single move?
Have the NPCs-are-too-stupid-to-use-toggles problems Castle mentioned way back when been cleared up, or will we have to give them passive versions of armours, assuming we can do that?
"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"
- When you say across all servers does that also include the European servers?
- What about localization/internationalization? Not for objectives that would be translated but wouldn't mission creators creating missions text in let's say german or french be penalized for doing so by not getting good ratings? Is the english use a requirement/strong recommendation?
- Can we filter by languages? Like if I'd like to do missions with text descriptions in french, I can find some.
[ QUOTE ]
(Not replying to anyone in particular)
1) Can we include non-targetable buff/debuff items or environmental effects.
If we can are they considered part of certain maps or are they just selectable for any map?
What I'm referring to is the CoT crystal spammers, those patches of blackness in some Croatoa missions that debuff you... (though theyre never placed close enough to a group to actually impact a party) ... magma pits or those violent winds that knock you about in one of the CoV missions ....
2) Can we create save the hostage missions? If we can create a hostage mission, are hostages customizable?
Can I have my sg play through the "Save (insert my characters name here)" mission... when they get to the hostage will I be standing there (having re-created myself) and will AI-me be able to to follow them to the door or help them with the rest of the mission?
Questions aside I love this issue. Small but full of wholesome goodness
[/ QUOTE ]
Quoting because I was gonna ask these same things!
Also...
Giant Monsters? Yes? No?
Destructible environments (as with Mayhem/Safeguard)?
Giant Monsters AND destructible environments?? 
I have little to really add to the conversation here, but I have to say that Issue 14 sounds breathtakingly awesome. =D Based on all the info we've accumulated over the past day, I can pretty safely say that Architect is everything I'd hoped it'd be and then some. For example, chainable events? I'd hoped, but I didn't think it was a realistic launch expectation.
Bravo, devs! I was something of a critic of I13, but I14 has certainly pressed my awesome button! =P
"Always remember that you're unique -- just like everybody else."
Do our arcs leave souvenirs?
If yes, can we filter out normal/MA souvenirs?
Can we make NPCs gossip about our missions?
Can we force the player to find the mission entrance?
What shall claim a Sky Kings' Ransom?
PPD & Resistance Epic Archetypes
(QR, didn't read the whole thread, your mileage may vary, etc etc.)
While I understand the rationale for not permitting powers to be added to 'critter' body types, will we be permitted to remove some powers? There are a few specific cases where a certain power prevents it from being balanced to have missions with large numbers of them, so we might want to be able to create a version of those critters without that specific power.
I wonder how much of a strain this will put on the servers,a "normal" misson takes X amount of system resources to play, if the online createing of misson takes more, then all the servers that are usally lag free, may start having troubles, will the other players who are not creating misson start getting poor performance?my second concern is documentation,it would be better for the players if we had a offline manual to read, and to use to "scratch out" the mission on paper, then go into it and build it much faster.
Fluffy Bunny 1 Person SG
Rabid Bunny 1 Person VG
Both on Pinnacle
Hobbit's Hole 1 Person SG
Spider's Web 1 Person VG
Both on Freedom
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The problem to me is if you let people have 10 arcs they will make 10 arcs, reguardless of quality. Then anyone who wants to play the arcs will have a tougher time actually finding these missions, which isn't good for anybody.
[/ QUOTE ]
But that's when having a rating system comes into its own. If you can sort the billion arcs by average rating, and filter your sort to "arcs developed in the last week", for example, then you'll get all the newer arcs that have been rated 4-5 stars right up top. This makes having a 4 star rating an advantage instead of a disappointment. As it is, either you get 5 stars or you have to consider putting a bullet in your 4 star arc that gets a few hundred people playing it a week because you want to put something new up.
No matter what happens, there's going to be a ton of dross. If getting 5 stars is ultimately unattainable, you either sacrifice creating new content to keep your popular but old content up or you yank down something people like and give up any chance of building more than a couple of related arcs.
[ QUOTE ]
While a small number, hopefully three will ensure people put a real effort into the ones they do, which makes the quality of the system as a whole better and thus makes it more likely people will use it, which then makes it even MORE likely that people will play your story.
[/ QUOTE ]
Either you get a strong enough rating to keep your story up high, or you get buried in the masses. There will be hundreds -- thousands -- of story arcs on this thing within two weeks. There will likely be 500 good story arcs copied over from beta on launch day. (And huzzah for that. As a player I'm looking forward to devouring some of these storylines.)
3 arcs is just too limiting. There isn't room to build multiple storylines on a theme, and there isn't room to build multiple one-storyline-themes. I can accept that we might need extraordinary measures to get more. (Vet rewards, redeeming astronomical numbers of tickets, or just plain plunking down cash at the NC barrelhead.) But there should be those options in the game, somewhere.
[/ QUOTE ]
As there are badges related to MA, I would not be surprized if extra published slots are a reward for obtaining certain MA badges, similar to how extra auction house slots were a reward for obtaining certain auction badges.
Or given the increase in microtransactions (for better or for worse, it's there) perhaps there will be an option to buy extra slots with real life money, to compensate for the extra server and storage costs published arcs take.
Or maybe after a round of beta testing they'll find they need to up it to 5.
Arc #345863 - When The Bough Breaks
"Curse you Perry the Plata...wait, is that Love Handel?" - Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, Phineas and Ferb
[ QUOTE ]
In the Massively audio, they said you can use MA from level 1. You can do the tutorial at that level. At level 5 you will be directed to it if you have not gone yet.
I take the saying "At the high level", to not mean level in game but like an executive or bird's eye view. A summary if you will.
--Rad
[/ QUOTE ]
Thank you. I read the Massively article at work and didn't get to listen to the audio at that time. I assumed this was the case, but wanted to be sure.
[Disclaimer]
I only read Pohsyb's posts (linked from teh Dev Digest page), and no, i'm not reading through 220 pages, so this may or may not have been asked already.
[/Disclaimer]
So, they're allowing XP and Inf. Rewards for mobs killed in custom missions? Apparently, the idea of PL'ing must not matter to the Devs anymore.
I can see it now: not only will someone rez the "Defeat Dreck" mission AND the Werewolf farms from way back when . Now we won't even need bridges to do it... it'll be plenty fast just to SK the lowbie yourself, and
I guarantee someone will combine the two concepts, and take it even further:
1. Create a huge, flat, wide open map.
2. Create a custom minion with no attacks, an HP debuff, vulnerability to all damage types (both Def and Res), and then make them rez like freakshow.
3. Commence cleaning up.
We'll have fire blasters one-shotting huge mobs (put loads of spawn points in, very close together) with a single shot of Fireball, meaning they can run it from level 2 on... just creating a new mission each time they outlevel one of the old ones... and they won't need to be reset either, since they can just be quit and restarted, or just finished and restarted. Also, they can bring at least one friend along who might not have a low-level AoE attack, SK them, and PL them while they're at it.
Question:
Can a mission be designed with a neutral custom mob faction that will ignore players unless attacked and/or or certain triggers activated?
I'm doubting it as I can't recall there being existing missions with neutral factions, but it's a feature that's on my wish-list, so I thought I'd ask.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Do I even bother trying to get story worth of a hall of fame or devs' choice award? Are there any other rewards other than getting my story arc a promotion? If that's all there is to it, then I'll probably stick to creating rapidly cycling story arcs for my characters, and not worry about the ratings.
[/ QUOTE ]
It wouldn't surprise me if there were badges involved, but that's not my interest.
I want to build. Among other things, I want to build on the foundations I set up in the first place. If I create a new enemy group with a story arc, I don't want to have to remove that story arc that creates and establishes them to have room to post a story arc that develops their story. At the same time, I don't only want to tell stories about that villain group.
Heck, before these things were even announced, I actively outlined five story arcs I wanted to do if at all possible. And sure, I can build them, but I don't want to spend a week building a story arc that then I wait to see if maybe -- just maybe -- the three I have up will promote.
I don't know. Three just seems way too few to me. Five, maybe. Seven would be plenty. But three?
[/ QUOTE ]
The problem to me is if you let people have 10 arcs they will make 10 arcs, reguardless of quality. Then anyone who wants to play the arcs will have a tougher time actually finding these missions, which isn't good for anybody.
While a small number, hopefully three will ensure people put a real effort into the ones they do, which makes the quality of the system as a whole better and thus makes it more likely people will use it, which then makes it even MORE likely that people will play your story.
That is kindof my growing worry on this, will this be a system where people spend more time making arcs than playing arcs, and really good arcs can lost in the flood? Kindof demoralising to know you will spend days working on something nobody will play