City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

MA Playable Quick-Start Tutorial (Arc ID#28470)

HiRiderII

By HiRiderII,
Posted on: 2009-04-10 19:49 in Mission Architect

 

Posted

Want to dive right in and get a feel for all that the Architect Entertainment and Mission Architect has to offer? Got 15-30 minutes? Then I've got the Story Arc for you!

#28470 Knowledge Is Power - Architect Entertainment & YOU! A Quick-Start Tutorial

Let a S.E.R.V.E. Representative walk you through the basics of what you can and can't earn by playing missions, whether regular AE missions, Dev's Choice or Hall of Fame. Then, she'll briefly show you some expert tips on how to work with the Mission Architect constraints to build your own mission.

At the end, you'll be presented with a handy-dandy list of tips readily available under your Architect Souvenirs.

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AE & Mission Architect Quick-Reference

This handy guide came with the diploma for Knowledge Is Power: Architect Entertainment & YOU! A Quick-Start Tutorial:

Tickets: Earned in missions instead of regular reward drops. Use them at a Ticket Vendor to buy recipes, enhancements, salvage or unlockable story arc content! Visit a Ticket Vendor to browse.

Dev's Choice & Hall of Fame: An icon in the browser marks Dev or Player Favorites. Do not award tickets, but instead give rewards like a regular 'real' mission. You will earn AE badges though, and special badges are earned by the number of DC and/or HoF arcs you play.

Badges: You will only get credit toward Architect Entertainment badges while in an AE mission. However, most things you do will earn you AE badge credit! Look under Badges, Architect Entertainment to see what progress you've made.

Creator Badges: There are more badges for players who create, playtest, and publish their own stories. Most of the regular AE badges have Virtual versions earned through testing. Also, earn badges as people play your published content.

Creating Missions: Don't be shy in the Mission Architect creation system! To learn more, visit the Instructors, click on every ? icon, and experiment. Take your time at first and start with a small test mission to explore the options. Nobody will see it until you publish it, and you can always unpublish if you change your mind.

Errors & Help: There will be a big orange ? in the upper-right if there is an error. Click on it to see what is wrong, and click on an error message to go right to where you can fix it.

WYSIWYG: The panel to the right of your entry boxes show what things look like. Click on something there to go right to the entry box that controls it. Playtest everything, to catch unexpected results!

Character-specific text: The following tags can be used with a $ in front of them to show the text that applies to the character selected: name, origin, supergroup, level, heshe, himher, hisher, sirmam. The last four can be Capitalized. Warning! If the NPC has no target, it will just show the $tag.

Special Text Formatting: Select text in a text-box and right-click to see what your options are. Use these sparingly! Example: Make the one important objective sentence orange, or make a red warning that an Elite Boss or an Arch Villain will be in the next mission.

Short, Sweet & Clear: Keep your text as short as possible so it's easy for players to read. Add extra clues and a little NPC text to help build the story, so players can live the adventure rather than just read about it. Make the objectives very clear so a player knows what to do next! (And almost never use Defeat All)

Have Fun: Create missions you enjoy playing, and are fun for others. Play others' missions and give them helpful feedback. Above all, have a great time!

#28470 - MA & YOU! Quick Tutorial
Poster 1481: Cause of How Some Silly Stealed My Wings
Cultist fun in 3586 Project: Perilous - Into the Chthonian Pit
Formerly of Perils of Paula!

 

Posted

Below is a reference guide of all of the tips included in the Tutorial, for those who either want to just browse here, or would like to remember what the Tutorial taught them!


*** OVERALL TIPS ***

Leaving a Story, Ratings, Feedback
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You've completed your first mission! You can leave a story arc at any time by going to a terminal and interacting with a different story arc, or by using the Architect Options button on your Nav Bar and selecting Quit Story.


When the popup comes up to leave feedback, please put any questions or feedback you have, and click Send Feedback. This will send a global tell to the arc creator. If you are giving a negative rating, please tell the creator why you didn't like it so they may improve.


Then, select the star rating, if you feel you have enough information to rate it. The star farthest to the right is a 5-star rating. This will help others know that the story arc is one you enjoyed playing and recommend to others! 4 stars says it was fun, but you're not sure it was that great. 3 stars is 'so-so', 2 is 'bad', and 1 is 'REALLY bad'!


Be sure to click Finished to submit your rating. Don't close the window!

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Remember: It's All About the Player
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Let's be honest, creators create because it brings them pleasure and fun. However, when it comes to missions, the end goal of creating content to share with others is so they can be a part of that fun. In City of Heroes/Villains, people want to be heroes and villains! Even if you use NPCs you care a lot about, please remember to make sure the action is centered around the star of the show -- the player!

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*** TIPS FOR PLAYING ***

Inspirations and the Hospital
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Gain inspirations as you play AE missions, earning you credit towards the Activated line of badges. You can also buy inspirations from the vendor to the right as you exit this mission. The hospital door is next to the vendor! You will accrue debt as normal in playing missions, but not in testing.

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Tickets and Ticket Vendors
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You will get only experience, influence and prestige rewards in an AE mission (unless it's a Dev's Choice or Hall of Fame mission). Instead you get tickets, which let you purchase enhancements, recipes, salvage or even unlockable content to use in your own story arcs! See Ticket Vendors for more.

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Badges
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You will not earn credit towards 'normal' badges in an AE mission. However, almost everything you do in AE missions earns credit towards AE badges. See the Architect Entertainment section under Badges for your progress! Earn even more badges through creating, testing and publishing your own.

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Captives, Escorts and Allies
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When rescuing someone is a required objective to complete a mission, you will gain credit towards the Extractor line of badges. If they aren't, then the rescue will gain you credit towards the Workaholic badge.

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Collections (Glowies)
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If a collection objective (a glowie) is required to complete a mission, doing so will gain you credit towards the Poor Impulse Control line of badges.

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Destructible Items
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Destroying items will gain you credit towards the Destructive line of badges.

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Custom Characters - Defeating
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Defeating Custom Characters earns you credit towards the Eliminator line of badges. Creating a mission with a Custom Boss will also get you a badge! Start all of your characters with all black applied across a Plain costume, and then only add colors and costume pieces as required. Don't add too many details, because most players will never see them. This will all save space for your mission filesize!

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*** TIPS FOR CREATING ***

Custom Characters - Creating
[ QUOTE ]
Creating a mission with a Custom Boss will also get you a badge! Start all of your characters with all black applied across a Plain costume, and then only add colors and costume pieces as required. Don't add too many details, because most players will never see them. This will all save space for your mission filesize!

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My Groups
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You can create or add to a Custom Group by making it the group for a Custom Character, or on the My Groups tab. Custom Characters take up space in your story file, so add variety by choosing Standard characters and clicking "Add" under My Groups. Remember to add characters for a wide level range!

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Objectives: Same but Different
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You can have multiples of one objective, but any difference at all requires you to create a separate objective. You can then have the two be the same (including the Nav bar text) except for the name. You can make it look like the same name though by adding a space, such as 'Hostage' and 'Hostage '.

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Defeat All
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Make sure that your mission doesn't have things you or other players hate to play. Defeat All should only be used on a small map, when it makes logical sense for your objective, and if the mission wouldn't work otherwise

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Setting Mission Level Ranges
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Mission level ranges are controlled by the NPCs you put in it. All of the NPCs' levels must overlap, and that overlap is the level range. Example: A mission includes Family (5-54), and a Wolf Spider Huntsman (1-5), so you will be playing this mission at level 5!

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*** WRITING TIPS ***

Mission Introduction Dialog
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Make sure players have an idea what they're getting into here, before they accept the mission. Put warnings about difficulty, time limits, Elite Bosses or Arch Villains.

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Mission Send Off Dialog
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Anything else players need to know to succeed can go here, but keep it short and sweet! Further story and background can go in clues and NPC text.

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Return Success Dialog
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used to give a wrap-up and any final message the character may have about this mission. It can also hint at the next mission to come!

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Mission Entry Popup
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It's optional to use, but when you do, try to describe the scene without using the word 'you'. Every character has different abilities and motivations, and might object if you pretend to tell them how they feel!

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Adding a Little Color
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In the Dialog text windows, select text and right-click on it to see a menu of options! Please use colors sparingly, to enhance rather than clutter.

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Mission Success Popup
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It won't always be appropriate, but it can help add flavor. Make sure not to assume that the player has done something that isn't required to complete the mission! If the player can fail, you'll have a different Mission Fail text when the player fails the mission.

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Mission Fail Popup
[ QUOTE ]
This popup will come up when the player fails a mission. As tempting as it might be to rub it in, try to be a little compassionate if you think the player will likely be very disappointed or frustrated with failing.

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#28470 - MA & YOU! Quick Tutorial
Poster 1481: Cause of How Some Silly Stealed My Wings
Cultist fun in 3586 Project: Perilous - Into the Chthonian Pit
Formerly of Perils of Paula!

 

Posted

This Tutorial is thanks to all of the players in Test who posted help and feedback, both to me and on the forums. If you can think of anything you think every new player/creator should know, please drop me a line!

Thank you for helping make Mission Architect such a great MMORPG first!

#28470 - MA & YOU! Quick Tutorial
Poster 1481: Cause of How Some Silly Stealed My Wings
Cultist fun in 3586 Project: Perilous - Into the Chthonian Pit
Formerly of Perils of Paula!

 

Posted

Saw this in the guides sticky and decided to give it a go, and I am glad I did.

It contained a slew of useful information, some I knew and some I didn't. It was definitely worth going through, and didn't take very long either.

Not only that, but it helped me work off some debt that I gained doing a mission whose creator could have definitely used these tips!

 

Posted

This is really excellent, thank you for adding this! Likewise with the actual mission. It really makes me smile to see some really good and useful content coming out of this system.

 

Posted

I'm going to sscan some bulletins now. :P I definitely liked it, did it's job well.

 

Posted

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This is really excellent, thank you for adding this! Likewise with the actual mission. It really makes me smile to see some really good and useful content coming out of this system.

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Pretty much that!

 

Posted

I wanted to post up a notice that there have been more tweaks to make it even more accessible to players, including a new title and description! This is all thanks to the fabulous feedback people have been giving me.

NOTE: You will now be exemped no lower than level 40! Thanks, feedbackers!
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15+ Minute TUTORIAL - Knowledge Is Power: Architect Entertainment & YOU!
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S.E.R.V.E. wants YOU to get the best of AE in the most ridiculous way. Learn and earn all the player badges! See secrets of Mission Architect even some experts don't know! * "Wonderfully done" "Should be required playing" "Literally just choked me I was laughing so hard!" [SOMA LBMA HFMA SFMA Lite]


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#28470 - MA & YOU! Quick Tutorial
Poster 1481: Cause of How Some Silly Stealed My Wings
Cultist fun in 3586 Project: Perilous - Into the Chthonian Pit
Formerly of Perils of Paula!