Frequently Asked Questions about Mission Design
By
Amarsir,
Posted on: 2009-03-17 19:54 in Mission Architect
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Sonic is a good secondary, because of the resistance buffs.
Pain Domination is another one, because of the AoE buffs in general.
Plant Control is the psycho option: carrion creepers means every pet you kill, you'll get another thing to fight. Even if you kill the creepers you get more creepers.
Also, in general MMs have lower offense because their primary is tied up in the pets. You could give the AV another offensive set with more teeth, like Fire blast or Energy Melee. But you may place the AV outside the ability for a large percentage of the players if you do.
If you're just looking to make it tough for yourself, you could also add Radiation Emission. You won't be regenerating nearly as fast anymore I can tell you that much.
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All interesting ideas, I plan to try them 
But what I was getting at, was: Is there any way to raise the lvl of the henchmen that the critter will summon? I made him a Ninja MM, and the henchmen were lvl 48-50, and they were skwishy as hell, really disappointing.
Strictly looking at the the summoned henchmen, what can I do to make those henchmen higher lvl / tougher / meaner / etc, or is this as good as it's going to get?
Gaheris
"I know that will get glossed over and 6 months from now someone here on the forums will make a statement like "Remember back when walk was crashing the mapservers" and someone else will say "Oh yeah, I remember that" and I will drop my face into my palm and die a little bit more inside." - BABs
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All interesting ideas, I plan to try them
But what I was getting at, was: Is there any way to raise the lvl of the henchmen that the critter will summon? I made him a Ninja MM, and the henchmen were lvl 48-50, and they were skwishy as hell, really disappointing.
Strictly looking at the the summoned henchmen, what can I do to make those henchmen higher lvl / tougher / meaner / etc, or is this as good as it's going to get?
Gaheris
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I don't know how much experience you've had with playing Masterminds, but that's how Mastermind pets summon at high-level. 3 minions at -2, two Lts at -1, one boss at even-level. There's no changing that, it's a basic mechanic of the archetype. Having played two Masterminds to above level 40, I can tell you that pets alone does not a MM make. They also depend quite heavily on their secondaries to keep their pets alive, either through damage mitigation or outright buffing/healing.
Look at this from the perspective of regular gameplay. You go into a Villainous mission with your Brute and wipe the floor with Longbow/Arachnos/CoT/whoever. It was way too easy and you found it disappointing, so you up your difficulty. Now the MM is spawning at level 52 with level 50 minions, level 51 Lts, and a level 52 boss. Remember that this option is still available to people who play your arc; perhaps you could even suggest that they run it at a higher difficulty.
"You don't lose levels. You don't have equipment to wear out, repair, or lose, or that anyone can steal from you. About the only thing lighter than debt they could do is have an NPC walk by, point and laugh before you can go to the hospital or base." -Memphis_Bill
We will honor the past, and fight to the last, it will be a good way to die...
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That's a false analogy. In addition, even if it was a truer analogy, the amount of custom creatures to be placed into an arc was never exactly quantified in any of the press releases, only the ability to create custom creatures. Ergo, the budget in your analogy was never specified.
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Disagree. You're a little too anal about his analogy. (Yes I just used anal twice). Without calling out exact numbers it was clearly implied that the MA would allow players to create missions. We as the players can only define in our minds missions (before MA went beta) by the DEV missions we know and play each and every gaming session.
If the file limitations are not allowing the immersive-ness or diversity of critters that make up DEV missions, then there was potentially some misleading, or at least miscommunication in the hype of the product. If this is the case, then perhaps it should have been billed as the Pseudo-Mission Architect, or the Mission Draftsman Apprentice, or Red Headed Step-child.
Regardless, the question is does the current file limitation enable a player enough variety of actors/actions to create a reasonable facsimile of the more common/frequent DEV missions which is what the entire creation of the MA issue, and its multiple delays, clearly implied as its function.
PLEASE NOTE that I personally have no opinion or answer to that question yet, the file cap might be fine, and I haven't put enough MA time in to offer my opinion
yet. But most of us clearly "got" what the previous poster meant by their $100M analogy. Hes right in the ballpark when considering how the MA has been marketed to us.
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Failing that, what would be a good way to approximate a "You have to fight your way out of here!" mission?
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In one sense, that's never going to be possible because the devs have deliberately put the panic button up in your Nav: to prevent players from getting "trapped" in malfunctioning missions, the player can always escape.
However, I was working on a mission last week that does something *close* to what you're describing. What I did was create a blinkie that spawns "Back" and I tested to ensure it was actually "back." I then set a large number of patrols to spawn based on that blinkie which fills the mission *and* a triggered boss that becomes a mandatory completion task set to "Front."
Net result: player enters emtpy map. Player walks to back of map, clicks blinkie. Map spawns patrols, and forces player to walk back through patrols to get to boss, which is required objective, to complete the mission (the way I set this up story-wise was to tell the player to "hack" a computer for information, and the act of doing that accidentally trips an alarm).
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I think adding what it does in your next FAQ would be most welcome
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Added additional explanation of the mechanics of the setting to the next draft based on your feedback, and should be uploaded tonight. I've included a description of what it "generally" does, but since that is tweakable per powerset, those rules are guidelines only (and the updated FAQ states such).
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Another problem i have, the end boss in my last mish is suppose to be a EB but keeps spawning as a Lt. how do i fix that?
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In the current version of the MA, custom Bosses *and* custom Elite Bosses will downscale to LTs if you play on heroic (custom AVs will downscale to EBs). This is different from the normal PvE game where Bosses will downscale to Lts, but EBs will generally stick to being EBs. Personally, I think they should have downscaled to Bosses not LTs, but this is an issue the devs have been wrestling with all beta long: custom critters just tend to be vastly stronger than normal PvE critters, and missions that the MA authors make that seem perfectly reasonable to them are often coming up practically impossible to defeat for many players due to skill, archetype, or build.
[/ QUOTE ]I think it goes the other way though, that a reasonable EB becomes an stupidly easy to defeat Lt, which can really spoil an arc.
When I14 goes live, will I be able to just copy my Missions folder over to my live copy of CoX and thus have access to all my work-in-progress from Test?
SMASH!!! is all.
SMASH!!! is divine.
SMASH!!! is control.
SMASH!!! whips and chains our soul.
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When I14 goes live, will I be able to just copy my Missions folder over to my live copy of CoX and thus have access to all my work-in-progress from Test?
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Yes. You can also copy those folders to another computer to gain access to your local creations if you log into CoH from another computer (a friend's computer, a laptop). It also goes without saying that you can share your creations with friends that way, although you need to be careful about name collisions with things they might already have.
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I think it goes the other way though, that a reasonable EB becomes an stupidly easy to defeat Lt, which can really spoil an arc.
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I submit that if someone is soloing on heroic (as I often do), they're probably more interested in the story than difficult-to-defeat end bosses.
My characters at Virtueverse
Faces of the City
QR
Okay, so I've got 2 problems with my arc that I'm not certain how to fix, hoping someone can help me:
1. I teamed with 2 others to test my arc. Mission 2 (Unique Maps > Croatoa > Croatoa 01) has:
- Defeat boss (with clue on defeat)
- Defeat boss (with clue on defeat)
- Defeat boss (with clue on defeat)
- Defeat boss (with clue on defeat)
- Defeat boss (with clue on defeat)
- Battle (Custom faction 1 vs. custom faction 2; allied with faction 1; 10 count)
- Patrol (Custom faction 1; allied; 5 count)
- Patrol (Custom faction 2; 5 count)
Yet when the mission was complete, we only had 4 clues, instead of the 5 (one for each boss defeat) that we were supposed to have. Checking now, one of the bosses was set to "Defeat boss and group" while the others were "Defeat boss only", but the objective shouldn't have cleared if we still needed some from the spawn...?
2. Mission 4 (Unique Maps > Circle of Thorns > Circle of Thorns - Spirit City) has:
- Collection (placement middle)
- Defeat boss (spawn on Collection Complete; placement middle)
I really want the boss (AV) to be an ambush, but couldn't figure out how to set the AV as an ambush (any help would be appreciated). If it's not possible to get an actual AV ambush, I figured I'd try to spawn the boss close to the glowy. The problem is, despite both being marked middle, the glowy spawned one room from the end of the mish, and the AV spawned one room from the entrance!
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
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Yet when the mission was complete, we only had 4 clues, instead of the 5 (one for each boss defeat) that we were supposed to have. Checking now, one of the bosses was set to "Defeat boss and group" while the others were "Defeat boss only", but the objective shouldn't have cleared if we still needed some from the spawn...?
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I've seen instances where "entire encounter" and "boss only" are reversed, or not working properly. You might be seeing a bug in how those features interact with the clue system.
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I really want the boss (AV) to be an ambush, but couldn't figure out how to set the AV as an ambush (any help would be appreciated).
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You can't do that at the moment. Its not that you can't put bosses or AVs in ambushes: you can. However there are two gotchas:
* The game has spawn logic that tries to "balance" the ambush against the size of the team and the difficulty slider for the mission holder (just like any other PvE mission spawn). If you put minions in the ambush group, chances are that's what you'll get. But if you put *only* bosses (or AVs) in that group, the spawn logic will have no choice but to spawn that rank in the ambush.
* We can't dictate the precise number of critters in the ambush. If the ambush spawn logic wants to spawn three minions, we can't say only spawn one. If we make a custom group with only Bosses in it, and the ambush logic wants to spawn three minions, it won't find any minions and will spawn three Bosses instead. So you can spawn Bosses in ambushes, you just can't spawn *a* boss.
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If it's not possible to get an actual AV ambush, I figured I'd try to spawn the boss close to the glowy. The problem is, despite both being marked middle, the glowy spawned one room from the end of the mish, and the AV spawned one room from the entrance!
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We don't have that kind of control to place things exactly where we want, and in this case the placement settings ("Middle") are hints to tell the mapserver which spawn points to use. However, the game *won't* spawn two things in the same place - if you set two things to Middle, the game will try to find two spawn points tagged as being near the middle of the map and place each objective into one of them. Placement is at *map instance* even if the critter doesn't spawn immediately the critter is taking up that spawn point: its "allocated."
There are times when you can "game" the system to get what you want, but to do so you have to be extremely patient and diligent: its possible to find maps that just coincidentally do what you want them to do in terms of placement. However, in general this is an intractible problem with the current MA system, sorry.
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I think it goes the other way though, that a reasonable EB becomes an stupidly easy to defeat Lt, which can really spoil an arc.
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I submit that if someone is soloing on heroic (as I often do), they're probably more interested in the story than difficult-to-defeat end bosses.
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That was true prior to the introduction of the MA. However, as was discussed in closed beta, the strength of custom critters means heroic is no longer the "wimp" setting it had the reputation of being prior to I14. Its now legitimate to play on heroic simply because one's build cannot handle the occasional +2 custom critter or double the spawn size, but *not* because they are incapable of handling bosses.
The MA is rewriting the rules on what "difficult" means for the game, and it will take some time for the full effects of MA mission difficulty to filter out to the macho masses that think only noobs play on anything but invincible. Ironically, the MA might be moving the game to what the devs always stated the difficulty settings were *intended* to be: everyone plays heroic by default, and players only play at higher levels if they really want above average difficulty - difficult enough to slow you down, kill you, or otherwise inconvenience you. It was never intended to be an XP-turbocharger.
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I'm past the editing window, so I'm posting the updated FAQ here. I'll ping Ex about having this copied into the OP on Monday, on the presumption she needs a weekend just as much as I do.
I have only had time to add a bunch of content to the FAQ: I'll work on formatting it next, so it doesn't look like just a wall of text.
Frequently Asked Questions about Designing Missions with the MA
Section One: Critters
Q1.1: How do I restrict the level that my critters spawn at? I want to make a critter that only spawns from level 15 to 25, but custom critters seem to spawn from level 1 to 54 always.
A1.1: At the moment, you cannot do that. However, it may be possible to force the *mission* to spawn only in that range by adding something to the mission that only spawns in the desired range, like a rescue objective or an ally. If the mission is forced into that range, the custom critters will obviously be forced to stay (at least roughly) in that range also.
Q1.2: What does "Standard, Hard, and Extreme" mean?
A1.2: These are difficulty settings for the critters. When you design a critter, you pick a primary and secondary powerset for that critter. Each powerset has settings that specify which powers are usable by minions, LTs, and Bosses (or higher). Lower ranks generally get less number (and weaker) powers. In addition, the difficulty scaler can be used to reduce the number of powers that a critter gets to use. These two settings (Rank and Difficulty) are independent: a critter can only use what its rank allows *and* what its difficulty allows.
Note that these settings (both Rank and especially Difficulty) are not fully implemented correctly yet: you may see unusual sets of powers becoming available or not available with these settings: they were a late addition to the MA feature set.
Q1.3: Why was the difficulty setting added to the custom critter editor anyway?
A1.3: You will best appreciate the reason by actually testing critters in the MA, and noting their relative difficulty. Custom critters are *much* stronger than standard PvE critters for a lot of reasons. Originally, custom critters used all powers in the powersets they were given. This means every Thugs minion spammed Gang War, and every Willpower critter rezzed at the end of the fight - with no way for the player to have any say in the matter. Also, Bosses would be hitting far harder than players expected, because they now had *our* powers. Critter powers are generally limited to Scale 2.0 damage - even the critter version of total focus hits for only Scale 2.0 damage. But now they have our version, which hits at 3.56 scale. This means critters are capable of hitting 70% harder than ever before. On top of that, they now have Build Up with alarming frequency: a critter that uses BU + TF can hit nearly four times harder than any other critter of the same rank generally hits with *any* attack in the standard PvE game.
Interesting if the Scrapper Challenge makes you yawn. Otherwise, its instant death to a lot of other players. Thus, it was important to allow players to tone down critters if they so chose. If you still want maximum firepower, you can still set your critters to be "Extreme."
Q1.4: What powers are "Hard?" What powers are "Extreme?"
A1.4: These settings are still being set, tweaked, and debugged, so they are still in flux. Also, they are hand-edited, so every powerset is different. There is no hard and fast rule like "Hard turns on powers one through six" which will tell you ahead of time what powers will be turned off and on. However, there are certain general rules that are *usually* but not *always* followed:
* Rezzes, Nukes, Tier 9 pets, Tier 9 "overdrive" powers, and status protection powers are generally Extreme powers only. Also, most (but not all) confuses and most tier 9 attacks in general.
* The first two attacks in a primary are usually included among the Standard powers. Sometimes, but not always, one of them will be limited to level 20 and higher
* Most other powers are "Hard"
However: these rules are not hard and fast rules. The only way to know which powers a particular setting will turn off or on is to set that setting and actually look in the powerset listing. Powers unavailable at that setting will be greyed out.
Q1.5: Can I "reskin" existing critters, or give existing critters different powers?
A1.5: Nope. Custom critters use a version of the player costume editor for creating their appearance: basically, if you can't make yourself look like it, you can't make a custom critter look like it either. Nor can you edit existing critters and change their powers. Essentially, you can make player characters into custom NPCs.
Q1.6: Can I make my own custom villain groups? Can I edit existing groups?
A1.6: You can make your own; they are also called custom critter groups. You cannot edit any existing critter groups, but you can add both custom critters and existing critters to custom groups. So if you want to make your own version of the Vahzilok with additional zombies, you can make a custom critter group, add all of the Vahz, and then add your own supplemental critters.
But be warned: every custom critter takes about 6.5% of your *total* mission arc file space (for the entire arc, not just a single mission). You're not going to be able to get more than about 14 custom critters into a single mission arc - 15 if they all stand in a phonebooth and don't speak.
You can't edit existing groups. But you can make your owngroup , and add in all the members of the original group if you want to, and then edit from there.
Q1.7: Why can't I use capes/auras/My Ultra Cool Talsorian Sword?
A1.7: All unlockable player costume content must be unlocked again for the MA by purchasing with tickets earned while playing MA content. Fortunately, the costs relative to the earning rate are low. The reason this was done was because it was problematic to allow players to edit MA content with multiple alts, all of which might have different things unlocked. The MA basically requires all unlockable content to be unlocked account-wide for the purposes of the MA, thus the need to unlock specificially for the MA.
Note there are other things that are unlockable, like certain maps and critters (see below).
Q1.8: Why does my custom AV spawn as an Elite Boss?
A1.8: The MA enforces the same rules as the standard PvE missions regarding when an AV will spawn. For a solo hero, AVs will only spawn on Invincible. For teams, AVs will spawn at lower difficulty settings if there are enough players on the team.
Q1.9: Why does my Elite Boss spawn as an Lt?
A1.9: Unlike standard missions, the MA missions have code to downscale EBs. At the moment, that downscales them to LTs (just like Bosses) if the mission is played on heroic. Whether this is intentional, or bugged (and the correct behavior was to downscale to Lts) is unclear at this time.
Q1.10: Why is my AV spawning at my level, while all other critters are spawning at higher levels. I'm set to Invincible.
A1.10: The MA follows the same AV spawning rule as standard missions which states that normally AVs spawn at the player's level, not at a higher level regardless of the difficulty setting. This does not affect non-AVs which will spawn at the level implied by the security level and difficulty setting of the mission holder.
Curiously and unexpectedly for some players, this means a player that enters a mission on invincible can face an AV that is level 50, and upon reducing their difficulty to Unyielding could be facing an Elite boss that is level 51 or 52 - higher than the level of the AV.
Q1.11: What is "Reflections?"
A1.11: Its a version of flight that also gives the critter a translucent glow - its the travel power that Shadow Shard reflections critters have.
Q1.12: The stalker version of Super Reflexes doesn't have Hide. That's a bug, right?
A1.12: No. There is only one version of all powersets, and technically its not the Stalker or Scrapper or Brute version: its the Mission Maker version. In the case of SR, the Mission Maker version is identical in most respects to the Scrapper version. But in no case are there two different versions of the same set in the custom critter editor. The headings for the powers are intended to be sorting hints to make it easier to find comparable sets: if you are looking for the Stalker powerset "(Stalker) Super Reflexes" it will point you to the closest one.
However, its important to note that it isn't exactly the Scrapper version either, because most powersets have been tweaked to make them work for critters. For example, the Mission Maker version of SR's Elude doesn't crash. In fact, most tier 9s only cost the critter 50% of their endurance when they expire, and have no -recovery (and no -health either in the case of Unstoppable). Some powersets are even more dramatically different: Radiation Emission's "toggle" debuffs are now clicks (to make it easier for critter AI to use them). A really dramatic change is Force Fields: the Mission Maker FF powerset combines both small bubble buffs into one bubble - deflection shield. In Insulation's place is aid self. That's right: Mission Maker FF critters have a self-heal.
If you really care what the custom critters will have in terms of powers, actually examine the powersets *and* the power definitions carefully (the critter editor shows "Real Numbers" for the Mission Maker powers). There will be occasional surprises in there.
Section Two: Maps
Q2.1: I'm having trouble placing things in my mission map. I told it to place "Middle" but it keeps showing up at the end of the mission.
A2.1: Two possibilities. First, many maps are unfortunately buggy, and most of the "Middle" spawn points are designated "Back" and vice versa. Don't be surprised if Back = Middle and Middle = Back for some maps (but not all).
Second: order is significant: when you create a mission and start placing objectives into it, the mapserver will instance your mission map by placing each item or set of items in the order they are listed in your mission definition. This can be significant because if you have a map with three front, three middle, and three back spawn locations, and you make an objective for 7 "Patrols" to spawn "Random" those will randomly take up seven of those nine points. If you then add a Boss objective set to spawn "Front" the three front spawn points might already be taken up. In that event, the mapserver will start looking from front to back looking for the nearest available spawn point. Your boss could end up anywhere.
In general, add the things you actually care about placement first, and the rest of the stuff last.
Q2.2: Can I reorder objectives to deal with the above issue?
A2.2: At the moment, only by hand-editing the mission file.
Q2.3: I need map XYZ and its not here; why?
A2.3: Some maps had certain problematic issues and were removed until those problems could be resolved. Its not always clear what those problems were for all removed maps. In addition, some maps might require unlocking and you didn't unlock them yet (see unlocking content above).
Section Three: Mission Building
Q3.1: What's the maximum size mission arc I can make?
A3.1: The maximum length of a mission arc is five missions. In addition, there is a 100k size limit on mission arcs. Note: this is not *exactly* the same as the file size on your computer: the local file can be as much as 20% larger than the amount of actual "memory space" that the mission takes up.
Q3.2: My mission was just under the 100k/100% limit, but after I saved and reopened it the mission claimed to be over the limit. What happened?
A3.2: A couple of things could have happened. First: newlines in text fields are replaced with "<br>" codes and they take up four characters each: a two-character NL-NL can expand to an eight character <br><br>. That can cause files to expand after being saved. Its also possible that other expansion takes place: try not to flirt with the limit too closely unless you know your mission arc file won't expand after saving.
Q3.3: I only have one mission and almost no details, but my mission arc is already over 100%! What happened?
A3.3: The most likely cause of this is that you created a custom group that included a lot of custom characters, and then used that group in a way that caused the mission editor to add the *entire* custom group - including its custom critters - into your mission file. In general, you should *never* add a custom group to any part of a mission design unless you fully intend to use *all* of the critters within that group.
The exception: designating a custom group from which to pull a single critter to use in a place where exactly one critter is asked for. For example: selecting a boss for a boss objective. Nevertheless, be careful about the use of custom groups in missions. A sudden jump in file usage is often a signal that a custom group was used incorrectly.
Q3.4: Can I change contacts in the middle of a mission arc?
A3.4: No.
Q3.5: I made a mission, and its empty! What happened?
A3.5: One thing to note is that all mission objectives involving critters - Boss fights, rescue Ally, Battles, Patrols - all of these actually take up spawn points normally occupied by regular mission spawns. Each one burns up a place that critters would ordinarly spawn when the mission instances. If you use enough of these, you could take up all of the spawn points in your mission, making it seem "empty." In fact, its worth noting that these objectives take up spawn points even if they aren't on the map to begin with. If you make seven patrols, and set them to be "triggered" based on a blinkie, those seven patrols will "allocate" seven spawn points which regular spawns can't use. Even though when you first enter the mission that blinkie isn't clicked, and those spawns aren't there yet, they will still prevent the map from generating seven regular spawns.
This can sometimes be a good thing, if that is what the designer intended. But be warned that mission objectives do not come for free (collection objects seem to take up a completely different set of spawn points, and do not generally take up mission spawn points - they do not "empty" missions as a rule).
Q3.6: I made an ambush, and when I trigger it nothing seems to happen/it comes but doesn't attack/it spawns incorrectly with the wrong critters!
A3.6: This is a known bug. Sometimes, ambushes don't spawn. Sometimes, they spawn in a weird way and never come to you. Sometimes they spawn, come to you, and then stop short of you and never attack (unless you go and engage them). Sometimes they don't spawn as the group you specified, but rather as the default mission group. All of these bugs were detected in closed beta, but do not appear to have simple solutions to. See the next question.
Q3.7: Why can't I make an ambush be a "Required" objective?
A3.7: See above. Ambushes are not 100% predictable. If they spawned incorrectly, they can sometimes be non-completable. That would make any mission that required them to be impossible to complete. For that reason, as a safety precaution Ambushes are not allowed to be designated as Required.
Q3.8: Why can't I add more than one ambush to the same trigger?
A3.8: This is an exploit precaution. Its too gameable to make a trigger spawn a large number of a weak critter like Family and just mop them up as they charge like lemmings. Its arguable that the limit is too low (3 ambushes per mission total, and only one per trigger), but if its determined to be too low, it can always be increased by the devs later (it would be much harder to lower the limit after release).
Also: the limit is one ambush per trigger. It is possible to make two ambushes respond to a single *objective* so long as the triggers are different (i.e. you can make one ambush trigger on BossX 1/2 health and a separate one trigger on BossX 1/4 health).
Q3.9: How do I see the source code for someone else's mission arc? I would like to figure out how he/she did X.
A3.9: You can't. You'll have to ask them.
Q3.10: Why does my boss not play the animation I set for him?
A3.10: If a custom critter has powers it uses immediately upon spawning, like turning on toggles, this will generally interrupt and override any starting animations you give it. As a result, those animations won't appear to play (this is a known problem).
Section Four: Mission Testing and Publishing
Q4.1: How many mission arcs can I publish, maximum?
A4.1: To begin with: three. If any of your arcs reaches dev choice status, that arc doesn't count against your limit. So really you can have up to three non-choiced mission arcs. You can have an unlimited number of choiced arcs in theory.
Q4.2: Do I have to publish a mission to test it?
A4.2: You can test a mission with the test option, and it will play no differently than if you published it *except* you won't earn any tickets during a test run. "Invisibly" you'll be earning special "virtual" tickets in the background that you just can't see, and that will count towards the virtual ticket badges. But (at the moment) you won't get any indication of how much you're earning as you go along, so to test ticket-earning you basically need to publish the mission.
Q4.3: How do I access my local missions if I am on another computer?
A4.3: You need to copy the files in the directories called MIssions, costumes, Custom_Critter, and CustomVillainGroup to the other computer from the installation directory of City of Heroes. Technically the only file you need to move to edit a mission on another computer is the mission file located in the Missions subdirectory. That file contains all the information that mission needs, including definitions for all of the custom critters you have used in it. However, if you have created other resources *outside* of that mission that you would like to eventually use within it, you will still need to copy those files to the new computer as well.
Q4.4: Can I republish my missions on Live when Issue 14 launches?
A4.4: See above - just move the files to your Live CoH installation directory, and you'll be set. Note that republishing on live will start from zero, with no ratings or choice-awards.
Q4.5 Can I rate my own missions?
A4.5: No.
Q4.6: When I send comments to someone, how is that sent? How do I read comments sent to my own arcs?
A4.6: Mission comments are sent via in-game email to the alt you used to create the mission. However, it will appear to come from the global handle of the person that made the comment. That means you cannot reply to the email message unless the person coincidentally has a character with the same name as their global handle. The only way to respond to their comment is by sending a global tell message (some people have resorted to posting feedback threads on the forums to discuss their threads due to the issues currently with the feedback system).
Q4.7: I tested my mission, and it plays fine. When I try to publish it, I get an error. What's the problem here?
A4.7: The most common error at the moment is "Level Range Invalid" and its a bug. Usually, if the mission tests fine but doesn't publish, its a bug. Those are still being ironed out at the time of this writing.
Q4.8: I published a mission, and it shows up in My Creations under Published Missions, but it doesn't show up in general search, and other people say they cannot find it? What happened?
A4.8: If a mission cannot be played after its published, because something that was working breaks after a new patch to the game, the first time someone tries to play the mission and it fails to load the system will flag it with a special flag that makes it invisible to search so no one else can stumble onto an unplayable mission. However, its still published and visible to the author so the author can fix it and republish it. If the game *unpublished* the mission when this type of error occurs, that mission would lose all of its ratings. This is a compromise to ensure that invalid missions don't clutter the MA search, but still give the author a chance to fix it.
Q4.9: Can I invite people to test my missions without publishing it?
A4.9: Sure, just invite them and then test the mission while they are on your team. Also, you can actually invite people into your test *after* you've already started running it. Although MA mission arcs are "pseudo task forces" similar to Ouroboros missions, the devs have altered the rules for MA missions to allow people to join and drop at any time.
Q4.10: Why do I seem to always have an "Exit" button in my Nav, even if the mission isn't complete yet?
A4.10: Its a failsafe. In spite of all precautions, its possible a player could make a mission that was uncompletable. The devs wanted to be sure that no player would ever be "trapped" in another player's mission. No matter what you do, you cannot prevent them from simply pushing the button and bailing out of your missions. That doesn't *complete* the mission: its like automatically running to the door and exiting. The mission itself continues to run.
Q4.11: Where is the field analyst/fateweaver/thing I use to set difficulty in the Architect building? I would like to change difficulty for testing purposes?
A4.11: Unfortunately, at the moment there isn't one in any AE building. Its a highly requested feature though, so you're not alone in asking.
Q4.12: Well, is there an inspiration vendor at least?
A4.12: Yes. There is a contact that sells inspirations on the same level as the main architect terminals and the mission portal. Facing the mission portal from the editing terminals, that contact is to the far left near the exterior wall.
Q4.13: Hey, I got an enhancement drop in an MA mission! Is that a bug?
A4.13: Not if its a dev-choice mission. If a mission arc is dev-choice, all normal reward drops are enabled on it. You *won't* get tickets at the same time, though, and the same restriction on badge earning (namely, you can't earn progress on any badge except for the MA-related ones in MA missions) is still in force. Even in dev-choice missions, you cannot earn progress on XP badges, debt badges, defeat X badges, etc.
Section Five: Tips and Tricks
Q5.1: How do I make a set of blinkies, only one of which is actually required?
A5.1: Make one collection with one item that is required, and another with a bunch that is not. Then make sure that the single and multiple display text is *exactly* identical for both. The mission will combine identical text, and you'll have only a single set of text show up in the NAV for both sets, but only one of those items will be actually required to complete the mission.
Q5.2: How do I get the mission contact or other NPCs to speak the player's name?
A5.2: Although this is not 100% fully implemented everywhere yet, most text fields honor the substitution variables $name, $target, $archetype, $origin, $supergroup, $level and the gender-sensitive pronouns $himher, $heshe, $hisher and $sirmam. There might be others that I'm not aware of at the time of this writing.
Note: $target is literally the NPC's target. This may not be what you think it is at the exact moment the NPC utters the comment (he could be targetting a controller pet, for example).
Q5.3: How do I change the formatting of my text to change color, font, or size?
A5.3: You can highlight text and right-click to get special formatting. That will insert formatting tags into your text (you can also add the tags manually yourself).
Q5.4: How do I make a patrol/ambush/set of guards all LTs/all Bosses?
A5.4: Make a custom group and only include Lts in it. That group will then be forced to spawn all Lts when its used as the spawn group (same with Bosses).
Q5.5: How do I make an Ally that does not have any guards I have to defeat?
A5.5: Set the enemy group to "single" - that means the Ally will spawn by itself with no enemy guards.
Q5.6: How do I make an "empty" mission?
A5.6: Technically, you cannot. However, its possible to make a mission that is *initially* empty, or nearly so. Every patrol, ambush, boss, battle, and other objectives that involve spawning critters take up one of two kinds of spawn points reserved for critters. If you put enough details into your mission, its possible to take up all the critter spawn points so that *nothing* spawns except for the specific objectives you created. If those objectives are set to be *triggered* based on some other mission trigger, those objectives can be initially absent from the mission map. Net result: initially empty map. Eventually, however, if the player executes the trigger (say they click on the blinky that triggers those objectives) the map will fill up with those objectives. This could also be a useful design trick for mission authors.
Section Six: Especially Strange Bugs
* Ninjitsu Hide is currently buffing damage. It should buff damage +100% and suppress when Hide suppresses, as a pseudo-crit. Instead its buffing all the time, and self-stacking the buff to the 400% damage cap. Ninjitsu critters are currently hitting *hard*.
* The AI is currently a bit borked when it comes to melee-only critters. They can sometimes not attack. This is an known bug being worked on.
* Ditto the AI sometimes gets "fixated" on one power. Devices critters are notorious for becoming fixated on web grenade. This is also a known problem being worked on.
* The "Level Range" bug is notorious: the publishing server is currently misapplying level range checks all over the place making missions unpublishable even though they are testable. Among the many ways to trigger this bug are: make a battle in which the level ranges of the two groups aren't identical; make a sequence of missions in which the missions have non-overlapping level ranges; use critters whose internal game name changes at different levels; use placeholder critters such as the "Random" critters. The list keeps changing.
* Critters with damage auras can sometimes kill their own allies when they initially spawn in some circumstances (this may be fixed by the time the reader reads this)
* Captives with damage auras can often kill their own enemy guards before the player reaches them
* Bosses that flee the mission don't fail the mission - they sometimes complete the mission successfully, and sometimes make the mission uncompletable if they are required
Section Seven: Stuff You Can't Do
At the moment, you cannot:
* Set descriptive text for your contact, beyond mission dialog
* Set dialog that the regular spawns speak (you can do this for patrols)
* Change the powers of existing critters
* Use the powers of existing critters in custom critters
* Customize the appearance of powers (except to the degree currently possible on live, which basically means custom weapons only)
* Make cutscenes
* Populate a mission with (panicked) civilians
* Lead an ally to anywhere but the door
* Trigger a collection to appear after another objective is completed
* Customize maps, alter spawn points, or make your own mission maps
* Specify a single entity spawn as an ambush, such as a single named boss
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If it's not possible to get an actual AV ambush, I figured I'd try to spawn the boss close to the glowy. The problem is, despite both being marked middle, the glowy spawned one room from the end of the mish, and the AV spawned one room from the entrance!
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We don't have that kind of control to place things exactly where we want, and in this case the placement settings ("Middle") are hints to tell the mapserver which spawn points to use. However, the game *won't* spawn two things in the same place - if you set two things to Middle, the game will try to find two spawn points tagged as being near the middle of the map and place each objective into one of them. Placement is at *map instance* even if the critter doesn't spawn immediately the critter is taking up that spawn point: its "allocated."
There are times when you can "game" the system to get what you want, but to do so you have to be extremely patient and diligent: its possible to find maps that just coincidentally do what you want them to do in terms of placement. However, in general this is an intractible problem with the current MA system, sorry.
[/ QUOTE ]I don't really need them in the same spot, just close. So the player doesn't have to backtrack through the entire mission to fight the AV that ought to be an ambush
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
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If any of your arcs reaches dev choice status, that arc doesn't count against your limit. So really you can have up to three non-choiced mission arcs. You can have an unlimited number of choiced arcs in theory.
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This isn't quite true. According to Avatea in yesterday's City Scoop , the same arc could get both Dev Choice and Hall of Fame and you'd get an extra arc slot for both of those, meaning the number of arc slots would only be limited by how many times your previous arcs got "Dev Choiced" or "Hall of Famed."
Here's the quote:
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However, if your stories reach Hall of Fame or Dev Choice status, you will be rewarded with an additional story slot! And you can continue to earn additional story slots with every Dev Choice or Hall of Fame honor you receive there is no limit! Also, if your mission gets awarded Devs Choice, you can STILL achieve Hall of Fame status (and vice versa) so you can earn both!
And don't worry...if your mission gets awarded Dev's Choice, you can STILL also achieve Hall of Fame status (and vice versa).
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However, I was working on a mission last week that does something *close* to what you're describing. What I did was create a blinkie that spawns "Back" and I tested to ensure it was actually "back." I then set a large number of patrols to spawn based on that blinkie which fills the mission *and* a triggered boss that becomes a mandatory completion task set to "Front."
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Thanks, Arcanaville. I sort of reworded my mission to accommodate this. I had a boss fight at "back" that triggered the mission, which spawned both a boss fight and a rescue in the Front, with the player being told to "seek information."
That actually opens up another little tip, though:
Question: I want to test all of my triggers, but I don't want to fight hordes of static spawns or run the Gauntlet every time. I also don't have invisibility on this character. How can I do this?
Answer: Create as many patrols as the map will permit, then set them all to key off whatever it is you want to test. That will spawn the map empty until you accomplish the objective you wanted to test, after which point you can just exit test mode and go back to Architect Entertainment.
And another little tip I found. The game has no spell checker, but since it saves story arcs to text, they can be spell-checked externally. I tried several ways, and finally found one that was both fast and easy AND that didn't corrupt my files in the process.
Here's what I did: I made a backup copy of my story arc (obviously) and then opened the *.storyarc file in Microsoft Word (2007) as plain text. I found a whole HOST of ugly typos, then eventually saved the file as plain text and loaded it into the game. In the meantime, I Alt-Tabbed between word and the game to make sure the arc doesn't corrupt from the things I do to its file and, if it does, so I can see what I did that corrupted it.
The arc is currently published (possibly twice), but the servers wend down shortly thereafter.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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I don't know how much experience you've had with playing Masterminds, but that's how Mastermind pets summon at high-level. 3 minions at -2, two Lts at -1, one boss at even-level. There's no changing that, it's a basic mechanic of the archetype. Having played two Masterminds to above level 40, I can tell you that pets alone does not a MM make. They also depend quite heavily on their secondaries to keep their pets alive, either through damage mitigation or outright buffing/healing.
Look at this from the perspective of regular gameplay. You go into a Villainous mission with your Brute and wipe the floor with Longbow/Arachnos/CoT/whoever. It was way too easy and you found it disappointing, so you up your difficulty. Now the MM is spawning at level 52 with level 50 minions, level 51 Lts, and a level 52 boss. Remember that this option is still available to people who play your arc; perhaps you could even suggest that they run it at a higher difficulty.
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Combine that with what Arcanaville said about AV's spawning at the player's lvl regardless of the mish's challenge lvl, and it seems that if I want to maximize dmg, I should probably set them up to be EBs if I want high lvl pets. TY all, been quite helpful.
Gaheris
"I know that will get glossed over and 6 months from now someone here on the forums will make a statement like "Remember back when walk was crashing the mapservers" and someone else will say "Oh yeah, I remember that" and I will drop my face into my palm and die a little bit more inside." - BABs
Thanks for keeping up the FAQ, Arcana! Here are a few things I noticed when reading it.
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Q4.1: How many mission arcs can I publish, maximum?
A4.1: To begin with: three. If any of your arcs reaches dev choice status, that arc doesn't count against your limit. So really you can have up to three non-choiced mission arcs. You can have an unlimited number of choiced arcs in theory.
[/ QUOTE ]
Doesn't being voted into the Hall of Fame also make an arc not count against the limit?
[ QUOTE ]
Q4.2: Do I have to publish a mission to test it?
A4.2: You can test a mission with the test option, and it will play no differently than if you published it *except* you won't earn any tickets during a test run. "Invisibly" you'll be earning special "virtual" tickets in the background that you just can't see, and that will count towards the virtual ticket badges. But (at the moment) you won't get any indication of how much you're earning as you go along, so to test ticket-earning you basically need to publish the mission.
[/ QUOTE ]
You should mention that you will also not earn Inspirations in testing mode. This might be a good place to mention the Inspiration vendor in the AE building, too.
Also, if you're desperate to track virtual tickets when testing a mission, you could keep an eye on your progress toward the virtual ticket badges (assuming you haven't already completed them). It would be a real pain to do so, though.
[ QUOTE ]
Q4.13: Hey, I got an enhancement drop in an MA mission! Is that a bug?
A4.13: Not if its a dev-choice mission. If a mission arc is dev-choice, all normal reward drops are enabled on it. You *won't* get tickets at the same time, though, and the same restriction on badge earning (namely, you can't earn progress on any badge except for the MA-related ones in MA missions) is still in force. Even in dev-choice missions, you cannot earn progress on XP badges, debt badges, defeat X badges, etc.
[/ QUOTE ]
XP Badges? Did you mean Influence/Infamy badges?
[ QUOTE ]
At the moment, you cannot:
* Set descriptive text for your contact, beyond mission dialog
* Set dialog that the regular spawns speak (you can do this for patrols)
* Change the powers of existing critters
* Use the powers of existing critters in custom critters
* Customize the appearance of powers (except to the degree currently possible on live, which basically means custom weapons only)
* Make cutscenes
* Populate a mission with (panicked) civilians
* Lead an ally to anywhere but the door
* Trigger a collection to appear after another objective is completed
* Customize maps, alter spawn points, or make your own mission maps
* Specify a single entity spawn as an ambush, such as a single named boss
[/ QUOTE ]
You might want to add that you cannot create a custom critter using any of the EAT powersets. I know it's not something that's likely to be added soon (if it ever is), but I doubt I'm the only one who wondered about it.
-D
Darkonne: Pinnacle's (unofficially) mighty Dark Miasma/Radiation Blast enthusiast!
Be sure to check out this mighty Arc:
#161865 - Aeon's Nemesis
[ QUOTE ]
Section Seven: Stuff You Can't Do
At the moment, you cannot:
* Set descriptive text for your contact, beyond mission dialog
* Set dialog that the regular spawns speak (you can do this for patrols)
* Change the powers of existing critters
* Use the powers of existing critters in custom critters
* Customize the appearance of powers (except to the degree currently possible on live, which basically means custom weapons only)
* Make cutscenes
* Populate a mission with (panicked) civilians
* Lead an ally to anywhere but the door
* Trigger a collection to appear after another objective is completed
* Customize maps, alter spawn points, or make your own mission maps
* Specify a single entity spawn as an ambush, such as a single named boss
[/ QUOTE ]
Probably the most useful part of the FAQ. Ty, Ty.
"OK, first of all... Shut Up." - My 13-Year-Old Daughter
29973 "The Running of the Bulls" [SFMA] - WINNER of the Mighty Big Story Arc Contest !
- The Stellar Wind Orbital Space Platform
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I don't know how much experience you've had with playing Masterminds, but that's how Mastermind pets summon at high-level. 3 minions at -2, two Lts at -1, one boss at even-level. There's no changing that, it's a basic mechanic of the archetype. Having played two Masterminds to above level 40, I can tell you that pets alone does not a MM make. They also depend quite heavily on their secondaries to keep their pets alive, either through damage mitigation or outright buffing/healing.
Look at this from the perspective of regular gameplay. You go into a Villainous mission with your Brute and wipe the floor with Longbow/Arachnos/CoT/whoever. It was way too easy and you found it disappointing, so you up your difficulty. Now the MM is spawning at level 52 with level 50 minions, level 51 Lts, and a level 52 boss. Remember that this option is still available to people who play your arc; perhaps you could even suggest that they run it at a higher difficulty.
[/ QUOTE ]
Combine that with what Arcanaville said about AV's spawning at the player's lvl regardless of the mish's challenge lvl, and it seems that if I want to maximize dmg, I should probably set them up to be EBs if I want high lvl pets. TY all, been quite helpful.
Gaheris
[/ QUOTE ]
You're actually going to want to set them up as AVs when you create the character, as EBs are (currently at least) being downgraded to pathetically easy Lts on low-difficulty. An AV, however, will be downgraded to an EB.
"You don't lose levels. You don't have equipment to wear out, repair, or lose, or that anyone can steal from you. About the only thing lighter than debt they could do is have an NPC walk by, point and laugh before you can go to the hospital or base." -Memphis_Bill
We will honor the past, and fight to the last, it will be a good way to die...
I get less & less excited for i14 after reading & asking questions. Same goes for bout 15 of us playing currently.
JJ
I delete more 50s, then you'll ever have.
http://www.pandora.com/people/jjdemon
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I get less & less excited for i14 after reading & asking questions. Same goes for bout 15 of us playing currently.
[/ QUOTE ]
Everyone has their own desires and expectations for the MA, and its impossible for the MA to meet all of them. However, given the test server has seen over 10,000 published missions to date (granted, some are duplicates or revoked and republished missions or test missions) I believe the intent of the devs to launch a system that a significant percentage of players will enjoy authoring with and playing under is likely to be achieved.
If its sufficiently successful, the devs will certainly continue to improve the system (its significantly improved since its first inception, and continued to improve since its original launch in closed beta). However, it will *never* have all the features everyone is asking for, which means regardless of how much time and effort is put into its development, there will unavoidably be players that will not be satisfied with its capabilities.
The bottom line for me is that in my own opinion, if you are looking to be displeased with it, you'll probably find reason to be. If you're looking to be entertained by it, you probably will find a way to be. There's no "objective" way to judge its entertainment value in that sense.
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In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
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[ QUOTE ]
I get less & less excited for i14 after reading & asking questions. Same goes for bout 15 of us playing currently.
[/ QUOTE ]
You shouldn't be. Keep in mind that a lot of things in this thread are bug-related and I14 isn't even live yet. And the Mission Architect is still awesome despite those bugs.
"You don't lose levels. You don't have equipment to wear out, repair, or lose, or that anyone can steal from you. About the only thing lighter than debt they could do is have an NPC walk by, point and laugh before you can go to the hospital or base." -Memphis_Bill
We will honor the past, and fight to the last, it will be a good way to die...
How do I make an optional objective display on the nav bar? Any time I set something as optional, it won't show up top. But I know pohsyb accomplished this in an arc.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU
Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.
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OK, Question: Is there something bugged about Escort AI that prevents it from attacking me when it "betrays" me or does it have to be set to some specific setting?