Ceru, I have 3 arcs. Two of them I put time and imagination into them, the third I made a quick arc based on the Rikti Comm Officers being a Rikti recon team. It's a story but you know it's also that particular group of Rikti they love so much.
Guess what? The Rikti Recon arc has more votes than the other 2 combined. Not complaining but you're right about the farms. At least I don't send people off with a random string of letters and stuff. It's a real 3 mission arc about a Rikti recon team though. 
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I'm also seeing mindless farms with misspellings everywhere and billions of Rikti comm officers that have 5-star ratings by hundreds of people. That is most frustrating of all, and really makes me reconsider why I should even bother creating good, playable, story-driven missions.
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I hear you on that, 110%. All I can do is ask you this: Why are you writing your stories? For the act of telling the story, in the best way you know how? Or for the badges/ratings/tickets?
If the latter, make farms and hook up with the various voting cartels. You'll get that outta the way licketysplit.
If the former? Then not only do you have to MAKE the arc, but you have to SELL the arc. That's almost as much work, if not more: You'll have to pitch it to the common players, sell it on your server's global channels, talk with PERC for sideline advertising, write up an ad for the Scoop, create a thread in the Stories and Lore forum and bump it with real material, not just for the sake of bumping, review-and-get-reviewed in the various "exchange" threads out there, make a nice picture or movie for your arc, invite a redname to check it out...
It's a ton of work - my SGmates call it my second job now, and they're annoyed that they don't see me play anymore. It DOES pay off, but to put this in perspective: Since Issue 14 went live, I've played a total of four player arcs, in totality.
Four. Seriously.
The rest of the time has been working on my next story; collating responses from feedback and responding with more than just a blanket "thx"; pitching my arc when people ask, or offering invites to various SGs to run my arc for feedback; etc. I have a long list of arcs people would like me to do, and I'm doing it - slowly - but yeah, having the time to review and critique effectively is yet another "duty" we owe to any serious writer. I don't say obligation - we aren't - but if you're into Architect enough to where you want quality stories to come out, the best thing you can do is positively encourage others to do the same.
At the end of the day, Architect is easy to do. It's an endurance trial to do WELL.
@TURGENEV - Freedom Server / IRON / B.A.N.E / HORDE
Turg Fiction: Ghost in the Machine Acts III & IV coming 2012!
Turg Fiction: IX is now LIVE on Architect Entertainment!
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At the end of the day, Architect is easy to do. It's an endurance trial to do WELL.
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I'll second that. I'm still hammering away at my second arc to make it just so and doing little else. In fact, instead of being here I should be working on it. It's like homework, any excuse to put it off. 
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Re: 200+ years - I don't play every arc. Many arcs don't have a good description in the search window, which is my second criteria to see if I want to play it. First criteria being the title of course.
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Any plan to increase the size of the description? Even 500 characters instead of 300 would make a huge difference. Or maybe some additional settings to describe difficulty? I'm having a hard time writing an interesting description of the story of the mission, while also providing information about what they can expect from the gameplay/difficulty.
I suppose I could stop trying so hard to use complete sentences.
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I gotta put in a vote for this. Not only this but.. if you approach the 300 word limite the description gets cut off in the arc browser.
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I've had 48 plays and 37 ratings. It's been up about two weeks.
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Dec, how do you figure out the number of plays and the number of ratings? I can see that I have a 4 star rating and the number 86 besides it, which I assume is the number of players. But how do you distinguish between plays and ratings?
AFAICT the number is the number of ratings, not the number of plays. You can see how many people finished an arc by watching badge progress, but I don't know that there's a way to find out if or how many people ran it without completing.
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines
If you watch your tickets really closely, that can help too. Or at least it can help you see how many people have rated you what.
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If you watch your tickets really closely, that can help too. Or at least it can help you see how many people have rated you what.
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Exactly what am I looking for and what do I do with the information?
The only MA tickets I've ever used are the ones that I've earned in mission myself ... but all those awarded to me from people playing my arc are still there. Nothing's been touched.
So what gets divided/multiplied/added/or subtracted from what. When I get home and check, I will have three pieces of information: 4 star rating/86 players(?) and the number of MA tickets awarded through that process.
So what's the equation I'd use?
If they give out tons of them they lose their "specialness". So don't expect tons of them to be given out all the time. I would expect a steady flow but you don't want the game to get to the point that in a year there are 2,000 DCs. (although it would be cool if there were that many good missions, that is like some kind of dream)
Right now I imagine the Devs are concentrating on MA fixes and I15. This being anniversary month there is probably a big push to get I15 out ASAP. Crack that whip Pos! We want out TFs. 
----------------------------
You can't please everyone, so lets concentrate on me.
Zuben--just did you arc. Kudos on lots of humour and a large number of subtle and not-so-subtle pop cultural references--for me, that kind of thing makes a mish. So, here's some feedback:
Mission One: I enjoyed myself immensely. Very much liked the cow enemies and almost peed when I suddenly got the joke about the Red Bulls. Now I can usually take down most bosses with little effort so I blithely sauntered over to that scumbag. He heals. Sunovabitch.  Mish fun, not too long, fun. And Heroes was a re-run 
Mission Two: Im here to kick [censored] and chew grass! ROFLMAO! Had fun on this one too; found the boss challenging solo but got er in the end. Good map for me too as my main toon is a flyer. The two PPD lieutenants spawned quite close together so they were an easy rescue, but I imagine this is a random factor.
Three and Four - pretty straight forward, good challenge, I enjoyed them. Cowthulhu! Whee!
My only real criticism is one of your bosses in the final mish--the King of Burgers, I believe (gravity powers), Bugger was insanely tough and smacked me around. I image he'd have been more managable with a group tho.
Overall, a balanced and funny arc. Top marks for you, and my full endorsement (not that its worth much, but....)
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Perhaps in your case it isn't true. But several of those "Dev's Choices" arc... just aren't that special, which makes the selection process questionable at best.
[/ QUOTE ]From what I have read, a number of the Dev's Choice arcs were broken when MA went live.
And they can't be fixed with NC Soft help.
That being said, I really do wonder if Dev's Choice and Hall of Fame will get pulled.
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I've had 48 plays and 37 ratings. It's been up about two weeks.
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Dec, how do you figure out the number of plays and the number of ratings? I can see that I have a 4 star rating and the number 86 besides it, which I assume is the number of players. But how do you distinguish between plays and ratings?
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Yes, those are your ratings. There's a badge for amount of plays under the Mission Architect section that tells you progress on mouse-over.
Dec out.
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Hmmm...I've had 48 plays and 37 ratings. It's been up about two weeks.
Maybe farming isn't the reason you're not getting plays, especially since there's about a million and a half other possibilities.
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I have three arcs up. I put three arcs when i14 hit, as they were the ones I had been working on in open beta, then took one down (/Nin mobs), and put a funny one up instead.
Standings?
5-mission long "serious" arc - 11 rates.
3-mission long lowbie arc - 36 rates.
3-mission long funny arc - 303 rates last time I checked.
It may be the allure of the Bikini-clad Vampiresses, or it may be that you just have to hit the right chord (and I apparently tickled a lot of people's funny bone with that one). I've got all but the last "played-through" badges already, thanks to that single arc (the others haven't really helped that much), but I know I worked just as hard (or harder) with the other two as well.
Players' Choice Awards: Best Dual-Origin Level Range Arc!
It's a new era, the era of the Mission Architect. Can you save the Universe from...
The Invasion of the Bikini-clad Samurai Vampiresses from Outer Space? - Arc ID 61013
Seems to match my experiences.
DevChoice = 999+ plays. (Well, it is page one, and it's humor.)
1-Mission, Funny = 500+ plays.
5-Mission, Funny = 110 plays.
4-Mission, Serious = 100 plays.
I'm trying to write my missions to shoot for a 3 mission average from now on. I don't think the 5 mission epics are gonna go anywhere fast in terms of playthroughs and ratings.
Still, hopefully the future buy-slots will have a pretty high maximum alloitment allowed... then I wouldn't mind slapping up some epics few people play through, since hey, I'd have room.
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!
Um...how do you flag your Arc for the Dev's to consider it??
See the "Dev's Choice: Becoming the Chosen One" thread sticky'd at the top of the forum. There's no specific process, but there are things you can do to improve your chances.
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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See the "Dev's Choice: Becoming the Chosen One" thread sticky'd at the top of the forum. There's no specific process, but there are things you can do to improve your chances.
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What he said. Following the advice in there is really kind of just good form anyway. I made a ton of changes to an arc I thought was already in good shape when I read that because it addressed a lot of things I hadn't thought about. Sure, they're mostly common sense, but still.
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Zuben--just did you arc. Kudos on lots of humour and a large number of subtle and not-so-subtle pop cultural references--for me, that kind of thing makes a mish. So, here's some feedback:
Mission One: I enjoyed myself immensely. Very much liked the cow enemies and almost peed when I suddenly got the joke about the Red Bulls. Now I can usually take down most bosses with little effort so I blithely sauntered over to that scumbag. He heals. Sunovabitch.  Mish fun, not too long, fun. And Heroes was a re-run 
Mission Two: Im here to kick [censored] and chew grass! ROFLMAO! Had fun on this one too; found the boss challenging solo but got er in the end. Good map for me too as my main toon is a flyer. The two PPD lieutenants spawned quite close together so they were an easy rescue, but I imagine this is a random factor.
Three and Four - pretty straight forward, good challenge, I enjoyed them. Cowthulhu! Whee!
My only real criticism is one of your bosses in the final mish--the King of Burgers, I believe (gravity powers), Bugger was insanely tough and smacked me around. I image he'd have been more managable with a group tho.
Overall, a balanced and funny arc. Top marks for you, and my full endorsement (not that its worth much, but....)
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I almost made a complete stranger pee her pants...? Wow... High praise!
Tweaking the bosses is a difficult thing. I've played through the arc with a team of friends and they all said, "Put in AV's!" And I've had feedback to the effect that the EB's should be removed or turned into easy regular bosses.
For King of Burgers, may I ask did you have Capt Bootes' help? And did you use BF's during the fight? (Personally use of BF's makes 'troller-type enemies pretty straight-forward to defeat).
"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
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See the "Dev's Choice: Becoming the Chosen One" thread sticky'd at the top of the forum. There's no specific process, but there are things you can do to improve your chances.
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What he said. Following the advice in there is really kind of just good form anyway. I made a ton of changes to an arc I thought was already in good shape when I read that because it addressed a lot of things I hadn't thought about. Sure, they're mostly common sense, but still.
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Thanks Guys!!
Anything I can do to be sure more good arcs are published is just fine by me. 
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How come we have not seen any new devs choices getting picked yet?
Any thing ever been said as to how they will get released? I kinda assumed with the target of 1% dev choice (I think thats right) that we would be getting a steady stream of missions pinged for us to try out.
With the search facility annoying alot of people some new Dev's choices would also help bring more good missions to the fore. Anyone got any info?
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They should do away with Dev's Choice. It really isnt player generated content of their stuff always comes up first. "Players Choice" should be the first ones listed.
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They should do away with Dev's Choice. It really isnt player generated content of their stuff always comes up first. "Players Choice" should be the first ones listed.
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So you want them to change the display order so that Hall of Fame (i.e. Player Choice) appears before Dev Choice? Um...okay, I guess that's a reasonable request. But how would it help the current situation?
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Hmmm...I've had 48 plays and 37 ratings. It's been up about two weeks.
Maybe farming isn't the reason you're not getting plays, especially since there's about a million and a half other possibilities.
Dec out.
LEGION OF VALOR - Be a part of the Legend!