City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

[IMG] #1013 - Turg Fiction: Ghost in the Machine

Angry_Citizen

By Angry_Citizen,
Posted on: 2009-04-08 15:29 in Mission Architect

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
For some reason, I can't start Act 2. I can start any other arcs but this one, I can't start.... Weird.

[/ QUOTE ]

o.O

AquaTiger just said this too. GAH, frickin' arc is CURSED. Okay. I'll try a republish later tonight; I have furniture being delivered as we speak, so it won't be up 'til tonight. I'll /tell you and AquaTiger when it's up for testing again.

This was working fine yesterday... I didn't make any changes!

 

Posted

*sinks head to desk*

Republishing ain't working. Just submitted a petition. I may need to unpub/repub this if the petition doesn't turn up anything good...

FYI: Act II is now unplayable. Try to play it, nothing happens. Last played at 5:12pm EDT on 5/23... I sure as heck didn't make any changes to it since last Friday, when I pub'd it...

 

Posted

Just tried it now. Can't actually start it. It give me the popup for entering architet mode after I click play.

But after clicking "Accept", the contact doesn't show up like it's supposed to.

I can start any other arc like normal but your seems to be singled out.

In the Arena of Logic, I fight unarmed.

 

Posted

Wait, I take it back, now I can't seems to play some AE arcs now.

I was able play any arc I wanted to yesterday.

In the Arena of Logic, I fight unarmed.

 

Posted

This is REALLY frustrating. I re-uploaded the arc again last night. Waited 10 minutes, logged out to another toon, set it as my MA arc, and it took, started fine. More or less what I did the other night.

I got the same "can't start it, no contact shows up" issue you did, about 8 hours after I uploaded it again.

Someone mentioned this is becoming more common, but damn if I know WHY. I'm going to start a separate thread on this...

 

Posted

Good news, I can start the arc now.

Strange.

In the Arena of Logic, I fight unarmed.

 

Posted

Well, some good news. I loaded Act II on Test, and with the greater flexibility in mob placement, I think I can weed out one custom group entirely, and get the 5th "tie 'em all up" mish I've been complaining about needing with all the bytes I'd be saving.

I'm going to futz with Test this weekend, and if it pans out, I'll unpublish Act II for a rework of a final release that's more story and less technical compromise.

 

Posted

Tch. Okay. Here's the skivvy.

First, sorry I've not posted in two months. The last month's been crazy hectic, so all my "play" time went out the window.

Good news is, that's over. Bad news is, I haven't worked on revising Act II beyond a few basic tweaks as proof of concept for sizing tests. So, nothing new on this front. But, I've been sketching out the new Acts for some small time now... with luck to be ready before Sept.

Yeah, I said Acts, plural. ...anyone who's read my Planetside fan fics knows I always underestimate the # of chapters I estimate for a given story. I did the same here. So, if it's not too much of a tease... I'll be adding an "Interlude" act between 2 and 3 to fill out the story a bit more, for peripheral action to cement just how bleeped you are before Act 3.

Cheers,

-T.

 

Posted

Good evening, all:

It's come to my attention that Act I has a fatal bug in the boss spawn, causing his "minions" to spawn as bosses/EBs, which is NOT how it's been working for the last six months...

I'm waiting on a reply from Dr. Aeon for an unDC to repair and republish. When it's fixed (and I'll take the opportunity to fix a few lingering errata while I'm at it), I'll repost and /tell the people who brought it to my attention over the last week or two.

Thanks for your continued patience, and I look forward to seeing this resolved speedily.

-T.

 

Posted

Ah, it's good to know that you're aware of it now. I was going to write something in the comments the other night but did not have a chance. I just thought you made an insanely difficult arc The only character I had who could beat the first two missions at +2 was a Stone tanker. He was too slow for the glowie hunt so I replayed everything at -1 with my soft-capped ice tank. Still gave me hell w/ the difficulty level, but at least I made it all the way through. It's a testament to the quality of your writing that I was motivated to do so in spite of a crippling bug

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by IridiumMaster View Post
Ah, it's good to know that you're aware of it now. I was going to write something in the comments the other night but did not have a chance. I just thought you made an insanely difficult arc The only character I had who could beat the first two missions at +2 was a Stone tanker. He was too slow for the glowie hunt so I replayed everything at -1 with my soft-capped ice tank. Still gave me hell w/ the difficulty level, but at least I made it all the way through. It's a testament to the quality of your writing that I was motivated to do so in spite of a crippling bug
First, thanks for the kind words. And let me state publicly, I'm still working on Acts III and IV (got delayed cuz of a buttload of life issues), but I haven't forgotten about this arc series!!

...Yeah, I started getting odd comments over the last 2-3 weeks on the arc, but unfortunately a majority of them were vague; "omg all bosses ur sick" and what not. Unfortunately, I get comments sorta like that regularly (I usually respond asking for more info), so I hadn't paid too much attention to it until I got to talking with someone who broke down specifically what was actually happening.

Luckily, it SEEMS like an easy fix: Mish 1, the end "boss" is a boss/EB, with a group of Illuminati minions around him. For some reason, the minions were all replaced by ...the end boss... so you had a cluster of 3-8 boss/EBs, all masterminds...

Hoooah. Now, that's FUN when you have Deceive... but completely NOT by design...

 

Posted

Heya all:

Just a few points.

I've addressed the issue on the multi-EB spawns for mission 1. It seems that the supporting group for the boss was changed from the original group to the group containing the boss, which was an all-AV catch-all group I whipped up to store certain mobs. I've cleaned it up, and the mobs are now spawning properly.

Since the arc is now un-DC'd, I figured it was a good time to address some of the comments I've gotten over the months.

1. First, I cleaned up two clue names on Mish 1, so they don't run off the screen.

2. Second, I mitigated the Mish 1 boss's powers slightly (removed the Tier 2 pets), due to requests from a number of players. IMO, the encounter plays a bit TOO easy now (my scrapper can destroy him in three hits now), but leaving it out there for playtesting. I ran it at 0/0 solo with a scrapper, causing the boss to spawn as a Lt. I'll try later with him with the boss flag forced, see if he's still a pushover. (I even tried to let him spawn his pets, to buff up his HP, but he still dropped quickly.)

3. I noticed that the default items for Mish 3 got reset to Ritki Crates somehow... so, I streamlined that map too. Tweaked the objects to something that promised to be a touch more visible on the field, cleaned up a bit of dialog to match the action, etc.

4. Mish 3 and 4 use the System.Defense mobs. Early on in playtest, these mobs were fairly straightforward - rough fight, but nothing overwhelming. However, in playtest I ONLY tested solo, so when it got released, I got a lot of choice commentaries about the Lieutenant class's Spectral Terror... and how there'd be five or six of them in a half-full team. Mish 3 was doable, but Mish 4's time restriction, coupled with a team of 2 or more, made that complicated.

The easiest thing I did was knock the Lt's primary down one notch, which got rid of the Spec Terror. I feel like she's a pushover now, though. I'm not sure if I should do this, or swap the LT with the BOSS, and let her keep Spec Terror, just be a rarer spawn. Comments on this would be appreciated.

5. Corrected a misspell on mish 5. ("processed" to "processes")

And that's it. It's up for playtesting (same arc ID) if anyone's willing to check it out. My biggest concerns here are whether or not I nerfed the Mish 1 boss, or the Sys.Def Lieutenants, too far. If someone can play a generally "weaker" class for solo checking, I'd be grateful.

Thanks, all!

 

Posted

absolutely amazing and outstanding story line Turg I have enjoyed what I have been able to play of it (all of Act 1 and half of Act 2 (stupid work taking playtime away grrr))

 

Posted

I played both acts over the last two days with a DP/Dev blaster. I died a few times but nothing too discouraging considering the AT I was using. I loved both Arcs and 5 star'd them both. I also sent you a PM Turg.