This is MA version 1.0.
The version that was excised out of I13 because it had no character customization at all was MA v0.5 (if that).
I would expect as the devs work out what power choices are considered exploitable and which are "safe" to let us put onto NPC's, we'll see more freedom in design in MA v.1.5 or MA v.2.0.
Also, this is a VR system within the game. It is not built to replace the game, altho' the content generated does surpass the dev-developed content. For one, it's not all within canon. For another, not all of it is all that well-written.
And... an artist never blames his tools. :P
"City of Heroes. April 27, 2004 - August 31, 2012. Obliterated not with a weapon of mass destruction, not by an all-powerful supervillain... but by a cold-hearted and cowardly corporate suck-up."
Your negativity is... meh. Try starting small, and working your way up.
As in SO many other posts on the same subject, the intractability of your 'suggestions' is significant. The potential for abuse is rife when picking individual powers. Rather than focusing on what you, specifically, cannot do, perhaps writing a better story centered around a few of your ninja-characters might be more interesting to others, since others [ie, not you] will be the majority of people playing your arc.
And if what you wanted was the ability to make a custom arc for you and only you, I submit that that isn't really the focus of this tool. It is for players to be able to make content that can be shared by the other players and enhance the game for everyone, not just one individual person.
The fact is this tool has no equal in the MMORPG community, not even close... and they are working to expand it.
/anti-rant-mode off
Arc #6015 - Coming Unglued
"A good n00b-sauce is based on a good n00b-roux." - The Masque
Well, if I were given the proper tools, then yes, I would not have to blame them...But, on another topic, how soon until MA2.0 comes out? The one with all the tools required to make /truly/ unique characters the way we want them? Is it just me, or does everyone's fun seem to always get ruined by those who want to exploit stuff?
A poor painter blames his paints. Yes, I'd love individual power picks too, if only to remove some problematic ones (smoke, web grenade, detention field, etc) but the real challenge for a writer is to write well within constraints. Let them guide you, let them inspire you. Can't do darts? Find a way to make a character that works with the system instead of against it. You may find yourself coming up with new and better ideas than the ones you had when you were working under assumptions.
Global @Twoflower / MA Creator & Pro Indie Game Developer.
Mission Architect Works: DIY Laser Moonbase (Dev Choice!), An Internship in the Fine Art of Revenge (2009 MA Award Winner!) and many more! Plus Brand New Arcs for Issue 21!
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A poor painter blames his paints.
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Yeah but I think a writer would have good cause for complaint if their typewriter was missing the E key. Sure you can write gadsby but its been done and mostly just to show it could be.
I have to say, I am just playing right now...and am seeing all the various missions...I played quite a few missions....
I love it. Its more than I thought it would be. Its...everything lol. Practically.
The unlockable content is so cheap...I will have it all by Sunday.
I, personally, have my stories in mind. I will not try to create those stories till I am satisfied with being able to do it the way I want.
If I did it any other way, I am sure I would be rather negative towards it as well.
I am waiting to unlock the mobs and all the maps I want as well as the costume pieces.
I mean...you DO realize that you can unlock ALL the veteran reward pieces, the holiday pieces, everything.
You can have your ninja's and some samurai and more.
And the scaling of powers is fine imo. I think in that regard you need to just get over it and move on with the game.
If you are very unhappy with everything else in the game as well as MA then yeah....quit.
I am going to play alot of MA content....because that is a way for me to get more comfortable with the creation side....and see new content.
Will I never group again? Pfft. Just try to stop me.
MA imo is only bound by our own self placed limitations.
Yup. And the first part of "The Sound and the Fury" was written from inside the mind of a man with mental retardation. Can you think of a more constrained space within which to write? Not that that was any good...
A bigger tool might be better, but people who can work with the tools they have wil get more done by working with those tools, and not waiting for better tools to come along.
Many a martial arts teacher has taught that, Yes, the "flying jumping front kick" is very impressive, but if you do not know how to do the basic Punch, you will never win a fight.
Arc #6015 - Coming Unglued
"A good n00b-sauce is based on a good n00b-roux." - The Masque
I do understand the initial shock factor if one was expecting a more robust tool, something like what you have seen in other non-MMORPG's. Its coming probably a year or more from now.
The development team and this community deserved better than this from NC Soft. Best wishes on your search.
We just got an SDK for a game that no developer in their right mind would even commit to having an SDK in and people are already complaining because they cannot do the things that weren't even the intended focus of the FIRST VERSION of the tool?! 
I believe that a Kheldian Gold Standard should be based on SO's, and for anything above that... there's Platinum!
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
To be honest I came back to the game about a month ago just for the MA. So far I'm loving it (and hating it a bit) and surprised they did as well as they did considering what they we're up against. It's not perfect by a long shot but how many games can you get creative like this? And the main reason I left the game 4 years ago was the missions. Total boredom. Player made things have the potential to rise above this just by sure force of numbers.
Welcome back mate.
The development team and this community deserved better than this from NC Soft. Best wishes on your search.
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Yup. And the first part of "The Sound and the Fury" was written from inside the mind of a man with mental retardation. Can you think of a more constrained space within which to write? Not that that was any good...
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Philistine!
At first I thought I would dislike the restrictions on MA. But to be honest, I have to say I really like MA 1.0. Yes, there are restrictions, but those restrictions have just made me be a little more creative in working within them.
Sure, I've had to rethink a few NPC concepts, too. No biggie for me, I just did some storyarc redesign, found different ways to handle it, and still got my story across in what I hope is a balanced and fun way for other players.
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Yup. And the first part of "The Sound and the Fury" was written from inside the mind of a man with mental retardation. Can you think of a more constrained space within which to write? Not that that was any good...
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Philistine!
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Oops, forgot to attach the /ironic tag there. Not like he won a Nobel Prize for Literature, or anything. Oh, wait...
Arc #6015 - Coming Unglued
"A good n00b-sauce is based on a good n00b-roux." - The Masque
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I do understand the initial shock factor if one was expecting a more robust tool, something like what you have seen in other non-MMORPG's. Its coming probably a year or more from now.
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this.
The fact that everything is instanced means that hopefully one day it will match up to the expectations of those of us familiar with other well-received modding tools.
For now it is fun to play around with, and fun to see what others are doing.
Searching for things is a mess with it already having over 250 pages of results, but hopefully that will be improved in the second version.
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We just got an SDK for a game that no developer in their right mind would even commit to having an SDK in and people are already complaining because they cannot do the things that weren't even the intended focus of the FIRST VERSION of the tool?!
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*please note that I think MA is pretty decent for a first attempt.
but just to offer up another perspective on your statement:
why would no developer in their right mind offer a modding tool in a game like this? everything about MA is instanced so it isn't really all that different than say counterstrike maps that anyone can join except in this case the brunt of the load is server side.
As to the version they were going to offer in i13, could it be possible that they just grossly missed the mark? What they "thought" was going to be good was pretty sad and made me personally question how "in touch" they are with the consumer. Thankfully they went back to the drawing boards and we now have a decent MA.
It is still missing a lot of no-brainer features though that will hopefully be added sooner rather than later.
Overall it is decent though in its current form. A solid "double" if you will compared to the original offering being a "strike out". Ideally they would be building up from a triple or even a home run, but it is what it is.
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So yeah, I have to ask, what are the chances that most people will only want to do MA from now on? I ask because I tried it, and from all it promised I was severely underwhelmed. Should this game essentially become CoMA, I think I may have to go elsewhere.
I mean, I tried using the MA, and had to stop after having my dreams of making my dream of making several groups dashed by clunky and severely restricted creature creation tools. Here I was wanting to make my own little army of ninjas, only to find that I couldn't give them the powers /I/ wanted to, but rather the powers that the devs think I would want them to based on some silly "difficulty" setting.
It would have made for such a streamlined and easy to use creator if they would have let us pick our powers individually. It'd be similar to how it is now, only you'd have "power slots". What I mean is that if you make a standard Lieutenant, you'd have three power slots on primary and secondary (if both are standard) that you can fill with any three from ANY set. These sets would include all the current ones plus the few that are missing, such as poison from the mm secondary, the nontransform/kheldian only skills from the hero eat and all the primary powers from the VEATS.
/rant(suggestions)modeoff
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I agree. The architects in all the other games are incredibly more advanced than this one.
Arc ID#30821, A Clean Break
The only problem with defeating the Tsoo is that an hour later, you want to defeat them again!
"Life is just better boosted!" -- LadyMage
"I'm a big believer in Personal Force Field on a blaster. ... It's your happy place." -- Fulmens
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I mean, I tried using the MA, and had to stop after having my dreams of making my dream of making several groups dashed by clunky and severely restricted creature creation tools.
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<Homer Simpson voice>
Let that be a lesson to you, boy. Never, ever dream.
</Homer>
There's a reason why I didn't plan out any of my hoped-for missions until I saw the toolset. I didn't want to get my hopes up.
I don't understand this at all, because I think MA is absolutely fantastic.
The major problems with this game right now are that you can get bored with
1) the same enemies over and over and
2) the same maps over and over.
MA completely solves both of those problems, and while it is true that not all missions will be quality stuff, many are in fact fantastic. I think it will just take some time for the ranking system to work out and the cream to rise to the top.
So far my only problems with mishes have been when someone made enemies that were clearly intended to be badarses, and wound up not being soloable at low levels. I'm just not gonna beat a katana/wp elite boss as a lvl 21 shield brute. Not gonna happen.
So yeah, I have to ask, what are the chances that most people will only want to do MA from now on? I ask because I tried it, and from all it promised I was severely underwhelmed. Should this game essentially become CoMA, I think I may have to go elsewhere.
I mean, I tried using the MA, and had to stop after having my dreams of making my dream of making several groups dashed by clunky and severely restricted creature creation tools. Here I was wanting to make my own little army of ninjas, only to find that I couldn't give them the powers /I/ wanted to, but rather the powers that the devs think I would want them to based on some silly "difficulty" setting.
It would have made for such a streamlined and easy to use creator if they would have let us pick our powers individually. It'd be similar to how it is now, only you'd have "power slots". What I mean is that if you make a standard Lieutenant, you'd have three power slots on primary and secondary (if both are standard) that you can fill with any three from ANY set. These sets would include all the current ones plus the few that are missing, such as poison from the mm secondary, the nontransform/kheldian only skills from the hero eat and all the primary powers from the VEATS.
/rant(suggestions)modeoff