Mission [TAGS] for easy search

Would you want that to search the Send Off Text for every mission in the arc?

I would rather see them add another field for tags in the story tab, or increase the description field, or both.



Updated the OP with Humor, Dramatic, and For-Hire tags.

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I approve this approach, until we have a built in search option for this. I have applied these tags to my arcs.

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I withdraw my previous defense of a Rewards based tag.

So long as devs are keeping secret the specific yardstick by which some missions are potentially being judged to be "too" rewarding, adding a RBMA - Rewards Based Mission Arc tag is nothing more than inviting trouble.

In fact, if you want to MAKE a rewards based arc, you would be best to cover your bases until or unless the devs decide to more clearly define how much rewards is too much.

The best way to do this is quite simple - dress the mission up!

I mean, how hard is it to think of a half decent story? I have seen some really lame stories in these missions - and these weren't RBMAs because the rewards sucked. So if you want to make a mission that does *invite* being measured against the secret measuring stick the devs may be using, then spend a couple of hours and make a story up for you mission - and put a little though in it. Don't do some lame "Stop the ticket girls mission" and don't name your custom baddie the "XP master". Use some common sense, spend more than five minutes, and cook up a non lame story idea.

Then the mission will not be as much of a lightning rod, since among other things, you will have earned the right to add the SFMA holy tag to your mission. That's right, by adding a real story to your mission arc, you will have earned the right to use the SFMA tag - and what better way to cover your bases? And who knows, the RP auteurs that seem to be in charge these days may even like your arc, despite the fact that is grants good XP/tickets/etc, if they also like your story.

Anyways, for now, given the current climate and the dev's secret reward penalty box, just play it safe, add a decent story over your existing reward based mission arcs, and instead label them SFMAs.

Of course, this unfairly penalizes us by not allowing us to find our RBMAs that we really want, for fear of running afoul of the secret limit, but that apparently is for now how the devs seem to want it.

Note: I will explicitly state that I believe we ALL want to follow the rules. But when we are not TOLD the rules, the secret standards we are being held to, then we have to make a decision - we have to guess what is OK and what is not.

For example, a highway with a speed limit sign on it that says not a number, but the word "reasonable". So how fast should I drive? Is the point that everyone should slow down to a crawl just to make sure not to break the secret speed limit that they won't tell us? Or if we think 55 MPH is reasonable should we do so, hoping that that speed is OK? The turht is, no matter how much we truly feel 55 MPH may be fine on this highway with the secret speed limit, if we see a cop, we will probably slow down to 25 or so just to be safe.

Does this reaction, slowing down to 25 in the presence of the cop mean we *want* to drive too fast? NO. It means the cops just won't tell us what "too fast" is.

That's not our fault.

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For Great Justice!

I would like to see tags separate from the text too.

Eventually weighted tagclouds (more popular tags appear larger or higher up in a list) could help with searches.

Whatever system we use there has to be a balance between what the player expects and what the author intends. We also have to consider how the MA labels bosses, play times, and map sizes.

For example: last night I wanted to play a short solo friendly but challenging mission. The first mission was fun until I came to an unkillable EB. (My tank normal can handle EBs.)

I tried again: mission length was short (1 mission), no kill all, boss, collection, unique map. I thought the map would be deciding factor. I enter the mission and find the map is fine, and the ton of glowies is fine. The problem was that the 25 bosses to defeat were guarded by bosses, and the top boss was a Carnie AV. So much for a short mission.

Some type of tag for time limit would be nice too.

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Nice to see a good sticky thread to keep this all organized. First off the first tag I think is missing is [VVSE] for VirtueVerse Story Enhanced. One way I think this would best be used would be something like [VVSE-tinyurl.com/rdops] or [VVSE-Soul Train] So the tag itself shows you the arc has more info on www.virtueverse.com and then it directs you to that location via website or article name.

For additional tags I think if you really want to go full-bore with this you'll want to make a tag for everything in The Mission Arcs by Genre listing for a start.

Here's what I've managed to come up with on that front so far. I have checked all of these tags in the architect as of this posting and they returned 0 hits. VVSE returns 0 hits as well, so they should all be suitable obscure for tagging.

Genre - Tag - Explanation with acronym letters capitalized

AE System - [ACMA] - ArCitect system Mission Arc
Allegory - [AFMA] - Allegory Focused Mission Arc
Origin Stories - [OSMA] - Origin Story Mission Arc
Classic Superhero / Supervillain - [CCMA] - Classic Comic Mission Arc
Comedy - Already exists [HFMA]
Crime/Gangs - [CGMA] - Crime and Gangs Mission Arc
Drama - Already exists [DFMA]
Global Domination - [GDMA] - Global Domination Mission Arc
Heist - [HPMA] - Heist Plot Mission Arc
Historical (Real) - [HRMA] - Historical (Real) Mission Arc
Historical (CoH) - [HCMA] - Historical (CoH) Mission Arc
Holiday - [HDMA] - HoliDay Mission Arc
Horror - [HGMA] - Horror Genre Mission Arc
Crisis - [CFMA] - Crisis Focused Mission Arc
Magic - [MFMA] - Magic Focused Mission Arc
Military - [MWMA] - Military & Warfare Mission Arc
Mystery - [MYMA] - MYstery Mission Arc
Mythology - [MGMA] - Mythology & Gods Mission Arc
Nemesis Plots - [NPMA] - Nemesis Plot Mission Arc
Scifi - [SCMA] - SCience Fiction Mission Arc
Un-themed Survival / Challange - Already exists [PCMA]
Puzzle - [PRMA] - Puzzle & Riddles Mission Arc

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QR - Holy moley, I created a monster!

Eco.

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MArcs:

The Echo, Arc ID 1688 (5mish, easy, drama)
The Audition, Arc ID 221240 (6 mish, complex mech, comedy)
Storming Citadel, Arc ID 379488 (lowbie, 1mish, 10-min timed)

All my arcs are now tagged. Amused to see that whilst there's lots of SFMA, there are precisely two VSMA.

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#2409 - The Mystery of the MAGI vaults. Azuria has contacted you to help her stop the thefts from the MAGI vaults.
#68054 - Out of the gutters. Left for dead, you swore that you were through with being a victim (alt villain beginning story)

I'd use VSMA, but my VSMA arc is DevChoiced and thus locked. Darn! Once I get some story space (I15?) I'll be writing more VSMA, though. I made a whole concept just for those arcs (Minions Local 412).

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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!

Have we decided on a "Solo Friendly Arc" tag yet?

Also, since the first post is already past the edit limit, can we start a page in ParagonWiki for that and link to that from the first post?

Edit: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Mission_Architect_Tags

I don't see the point of server-specific tags, but since they're optional, to each their own.

I propose [SLMA] for SoLo friendly Mission Arcs. I haven't added it to the ParagonWiki article, but I have tagged my arcs such in the meantime.

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www.SaveCOH.com: Calls to Action and Events Calendar
This is what 3700 heroes in a single zone looks like.
Thanks to @EnsonsDeath for the GVE code that made me VIP again!

Leandro, you are awesome. *uses tags*

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she who needs no mic
"You couldn't be more wrong if you were upended in a vat full of toxic wrong by Captain Wrong and his Wrongbots and earned a permanent inherent power called Aura of Wrong."-Lady_Sadako

Pondering - maybe a tag for missions that specifically use the AE as written?

AEMA maybe?

Or too niche?

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#2409 - The Mystery of the MAGI vaults. Azuria has contacted you to help her stop the thefts from the MAGI vaults.
#68054 - Out of the gutters. Left for dead, you swore that you were through with being a victim (alt villain beginning story)

Have there been any suggestions for a tag for soloers? Particularly those who don't want to deal with AVs and EBs?

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Current main:
Schrodinger's Gun, Dual Pistols/Mental Blaster, Virtue

Avatar: Becky Miyamoto from Pani Poni Dash. Roulette roulette~

I like these ideas a lot, I'll have to tag my work tonight. Have there been any solid words from the devs about the likelihood of a baked-in tagging system?

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Dkellis, Leandro suggested SLMA

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#2409 - The Mystery of the MAGI vaults. Azuria has contacted you to help her stop the thefts from the MAGI vaults.
#68054 - Out of the gutters. Left for dead, you swore that you were through with being a victim (alt villain beginning story)

SLMA works for me. And Leandro, if you're up to keeping up the wiki, that's great I was wondering what to do when the edit limit expired.

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If I might add a new layer to this, here is a partial list of the genres available for stories used on the FanFiction.net site (when you post a story, you're allowed to select two). These might be good for giving more of the flavour of your arc:

Adventure
Angst
Crime
Drama
Fantasy
Horror
Humor
Mystery
Parody
Romance
Sci-Fi
Supernatural
Suspense
Tragedy

So, to use my own arcs as an example, "Dyne of the Times" would be Crime/Suspense, "Hell Hath No Fury" would be Supernatural/Drama, and "Positron Gets Some" would be Humor/Romance.

To give examples of other people's arcs, "Opera of the Abyss" might be Supernatural/Suspense, "Intellectual Property Theft" would be Humor/Parody, and so on.

Admittedly, this is more text in our descriptions, but if anyone knows a good way to shorten these, I'm all for it.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

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Wikipage looks good. Greyhawke, maybe you should just ask one of the community coordinators if they can edit the link into the first post of this thread, otherwise it's going to get lost in the pages and pages of this board posting. I went ahead and added SLMA and the Genre tags I mentioned before into the wikipage. Though looking at the Genre listing I did from the mission arcs by genre and the genres from fanfiction.net, that listing of genre tags could be expanded a little.

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The following tags have now appeared ones the Wiki page, specifically the one for the genre listings. ( i didn't add these..someone else did.. but thought we best keep the lists consolidated )

* [ACMA] - Arcitect System Mission Arc
* [AFMA] - Allegory Focused Mission Arc
* [CCMA] - Classic Comic Mission Arc
* [CGMA] - Crime and Gangs Mission Arc
* [CFMA] - Crisis Focused Mission Arc
* [DFMA] - Drama Focused Mission Arc
* [GDMA] - Global Domination Mission Arc
* [HPMA] - Heist Plot Mission Arc
* [HRMA] - Historical (Real) Mission Arc
* [HCMA] - Historical (CoH) Mission Arc
* [HDMA] - Holiday Mission Arc
* [HGMA] - Horror Genre Mission Arc
* [HFMA] - Humor Focused Mission Arc
* [MFMA] - Magic Focused Mission Arc
* [MWMA] - Military & Warfare Mission Arc
* [MYMA] - Mystery Mission Arc
* [MGMA] - Mythology & Gods Mission Arc
* [NPMA] - Nemesis Plot Mission Arc
* [OSMA] - Origin Story Mission Arc
* [PRMA] - Puzzle & Riddles Mission Arc
* [SCMA] - Science Fiction Mission Arc

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Arc #1267 The Key of Brass and Flame

[ QUOTE ]
Dkellis, Leandro suggested SLMA

[/ QUOTE ]

SLMA it is. I realize that soloability is subjective, though, especially when the first "SLMA" tagged arc I tried contains an Elite Boss, guarded by a Boss-ranked Nictus Dark Nova. Leandro, was that on purpose?

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Current main:
Schrodinger's Gun, Dual Pistols/Mental Blaster, Virtue

Avatar: Becky Miyamoto from Pani Poni Dash. Roulette roulette~

[ QUOTE ]
--- [NCMA] - Non-Canon Mission Arc (Not grounded in COH canon, an "Elseworlds" arc)


[/ QUOTE ]

There should be a middle-ground tag for this. Canonicity isn't binary; it's a matter of degree.

Non-canon and Elseworlds, to me, imply a free-for-all/anything goes arc, the kind where Statesman is a woman (Stateswoman?) and the contact is her secret love child with Lord Recluse, or one where the Rikti never invaded, or one that makes no attempt to relate to the CoH story at all.

Arcs that build upon canon** aren't canonical, but are much closer to it than that.

Expanded Canon (ECA), perhaps. Sort of like the Expanded Universe of Star Wars, only without Kevin J. Anderson.

(** I'd consider the first arc in my sig to be one of these, because -- among other things -- I expand on the nature of the clockwork as revealed in the Mind of a King storyarc.)

Edit: Also, I'd recommend adding one for Alternate Universe stuff (In the sense of Portal Corporation, not Elseworlds)


I'm going to second the suggestion to drop at least one letter of the "MA" bit (if not the whole thing), false positives or no. (Thus my not using it above.) There is little room for redundancy in either the description field or arcs that are heavy on custom critters.

Further, too many letters makes your description look like unreadable alphabet soup, which may be counterproductive (people who are unfamiliar with the system (i.e., most players) may very well start avoiding arcs with too many tags rather than trying to figure them out.

It also makes me want to grab people and reprise the end scene of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, only ranting about how MA stands for "Mission Architect" and the correct term for these is Story Arc, but that's just nit-picking.

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The problem with cutting it down to three letters is that the search engine is so stupid that you get an insane number of false positives.

If the engine didn't ignore non-alphanumerics it would be a lot easier to use shorter acronyms or even real words.

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#2409 - The Mystery of the MAGI vaults. Azuria has contacted you to help her stop the thefts from the MAGI vaults.
#68054 - Out of the gutters. Left for dead, you swore that you were through with being a victim (alt villain beginning story)

[ QUOTE ]
There should be a middle-ground tag for this. Canonicity isn't binary; it's a matter of degree.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't see how. I mean, if it involves anything in an alternate reality that isn't already involved in the Dev-created content of the game (ie. Praetorians, Axis America...) then I'd consider it non-canon.

If not, then there's really no need for an elseworld's tag. I'd say the matter of degree depends on whether the author feels placing such a tag in the description would be worth it or not.

As far as the tag length, etc.'s effect on the story description? I'd think a good guideline to recommend would be for authors to pick the three tags that would best describe their arcs, and stick with those. It'd help to avoid the Alphagetti mess.

Even though, Alphagetti is awesome.

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It may just be me, but anyone else think this is getting a bit out of hand? I mean, the idea was to have a simple tag to differentiate stories from farms, right? And to virally spread the idea to people who wouldn't know what the tag meant, right? Now you have forty-eleven tags that people won't know what they mean nor will they want to delve into learning them all. I kind of think y'all are ^%$#ing in your own hat here.

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Dec out.

I think the key is to stick to the top-level tags, and THEN add any sub-tags the author feels like adding. So, first SFMA, then if you feel like it and you have the space add things for genre, approach, canon, etc.

That stuff just narrows down a narrowed down search. But you have to use one of the primaries, first and foremost, just to get folks to FIND your story. Then you can start telling them what to expect beyond that.

Perhaps an explanation along those lines should be added? To emphasize that even if there's eleventy billion of the things, they are not all required, and there is a "core" set you should turn to first.

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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!

That certainly would make sense. I just don't want to see this good idea get away from us here and get bogged down in detail.

I think we also need to remember that the vast majority of the player base NEVER goes to the forums and rarely goes to the Wiki.

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Dec out.