So... How has your MA Authoring experience been?
By
Aliana Blue,
Posted on: 2009-04-23 24:10 in Mission Architect
Mine has been...interesting. The bigger part of the Open Beta I spent finding out what it could and couldn't do. It's a good basic system, that just needs some tweaking and additions. I already have several stories my characters have gone through in my head rather than the game (often origins or stories explaining big changes in the character's appearance). I've been stymied quite a few times, but I'm hoping some additions will be made.
One of the biggest that's stopping my "big epic" is that it has to end with an already established big fight between an AV villain and an EB hero (he's supposed to die) and we can't do one on one fights yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the future, but I'm enjoying what we CAN do in the meantime.
Dec out.
For me, it's been frustrating, trying to work within the constraints of the system. I'm trying to give the player a feel for what's going on without spelling it all out for them, and that's tough.
I want to show villain groups at odds with each other. Battles are inadequate, since they trigger from too far away and are usually over before you get there. I want triggered nav bar objectives. (The blinky is there, if you find it, but you don't know to look for it until the captive drops a hint). I want to be able to use lieutenants and minions from standard groups as "boss" spawns, so they can talk, and emote, and do stuff other than wait to get killed.
I also want my husband to stop saying "Are you STILL not done that arc?" 
Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
My experience was AWESOME. For a week there I was bringing to life all the ideas that I'd been pondering since the Architect was announced -- fine tuning, tweaking, playtesting, WRITING. It was wonderful and probably one of the highlights of my year so far.
Then it went live, I published 3 of my remaining 8 stories, and I never wrote again.
Maybe once whatever microtransaction / vet reward / craftable slots go in with a patch or I15 arrive, I'll be able to use it again. Until then I don't want to nuke my ratings by pulling down what I've got up, and if I write any MORE I'll be digging myself deeper in this hole, so I've been putting it aside in hopes of using it again one day.
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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So far, go good. Before I even got into Open Beta, I had story ideas floating around inside my head. The real trick was to see what could be done in the Mission Architect, and what could not. Needless to say, writer's block was not an issue.
However, making one's own preconception about how a story arc should play out and what the exact capabilities of the MA Editor were have been a struggle. Finding the map that best fits a mission, limiting the number of custom characters you put into a story, making best use of preexisting character models and then renaming a few just to save some space, working withing the 100k limit, not overpowering your custom characters so that they either dominate the mission or dominate the player characters (unnecessarily), And of course, making sure all the text is spelled correctly (minus flavor text spellings).
The biggest thing that took me by surprise though, was that once I had thought that I had play tested the story arc enough (at least about 5 times through) and released it, I kept going back and fix, changing, running text dialog back through spelling and grammer checkers (WORD 2007), or modding it. It was like I had released an Open Beta version of my Mission Arc.
I'm wondering if this is a lot like what the Devs experience when they release new story content in Beta on the Test Server.
How has the MA Authorship experience been for you? What stumbling blocks have you encountered that you didn't expect and what did you find easy? Has this given you a new appreciation or understanding for how much effort it actually takes to make new story content?
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I only have 1 thing to add to this.
The MA system has eaten my brain and devoured my soul.
Frustrating and rewarding all at the same time. I hate when I can't get a mission the way I want it, but when I finally figure it out it's beautiful!
largely the same as the OP
Biggest issue for me is inconsistencies:
You can trigger X objective off Y objective but not off Z objective for no apparent reason
Civilian AZ can do the Captured Hands Up animation but Civilian BQ cannot
The number of custom enemies is an issue.
The lack of scaling standard enemies is an issue - I did a Skulls arc but wanted it to be any level so I made my own custom Skulls.
What really surprised me when I was done was how small and short my 5 mission arc was. Weeks of work and fiddling and you expect it to take days to play.
I find myself shouting at the screen, and have developed a nervous left eye twitch (more from lack of sleep). I have the same issue with triggers/cascading objectives making me crazy because I just can't quite do them the way I'd like to. If I had a nickel for every time I said, "This would be so cool," only to have the Error Message indicator pop up, I'd be rich. 
And with the whole placement on the map thing. I guess I had hoped for some sort of drag-n-drop glowie-placement interface option that would just let us drop things anywhere in the environment, for when precision mattered - the way GMs often drag faulty items (overlapping glowies, for example) around in the environment to help you when something's stuck (maybe, some day?)
Right now I can't get my first arc out the door cause I just can't seem to find maps that work with my placement settings. Even just an option to put a glowie on a specific floor would help.
All that said, I returned to the game after a nearly year-long absence just to tinker with this. And I feel re-energized about the game (even just testing my own stuff all night). But man, could I use some more sleep! 
It's been frustrating and disappointing.
Every single arc I've tried to create has been sunk by at least one mission where I wanted to do something that some developer-created mission has already done, that would be critical to the story, but is impossible to do in the Architect.
I don't think I'll be making any missions until they fix up the Architect to a level that we can at least duplicate developer-created missions. Seems to me they should've waited to announce it until they were prepared to release it in that form anyway.
"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty."
"Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man."
- Thomas Jefferson
It's been pretty good for me. When I heard about Architect I started thinking of ideas for it and writing stories in 5-fraction-format, then I heard about the 3 arc limit and just stopped with that and chose 3 to go with.
Then I had yet another idea, took one down due to complaints about /Ninjitsu, and the new creation ended up being my most popular arc, despite being largely humor-focused. Go figure
Players' Choice Awards: Best Dual-Origin Level Range Arc!
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Great for me, the ability to create something that other players enjoy is something of a dream come true.
Want comedy and lighthearted action? Between levels 1-14? Try Nuclear in 90 - The Fusionette Task Force!
Arc ID 58363!
The MA itself is great for me. With some tweaking to work with the system, it looks like I can use it to make any idea I have.
The system built around the MA I'm not so happy with. I feel like things I make are seen for about a day, then never seen again from people in-game. I tend to get 40-60 ratings the first day I post anything, and then 1 every few days or so after the rating average gets to 4 stars. It's discouraging.
Mostly I wish they'd consider an average of both number of stars you have and number of total ratings you have.
Oh, and some sort of indicator on the map previews as to where the front/middle/back spots are roughly would be great, too. There are some maps that I just can't figure out where the "front" of the map is. The battle thing would also be nice.
I've had nothing but pain and problems. I really hate this, enough that I am cursing out loud pretty vehemently. Every arc I've made has been invalidated due to patches removing enemies and maps vital to the story.
They've absolutely ruined it all for me, everything I wanted, which was very little! To use fire imps. OH GOD YOU ARE A TERRIBLE PERSON YOUR ARC IS INVALIDATED FOREVER.
This is just [censored]. It's leaning me towards quitting, and very little in the game has ever, ever done that to me other than GDN.
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Enemy XP Mods
(Drag my avatar into your mp3 player!)
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The system built around the MA I'm not so happy with. I feel like things I make are seen for about a day, then never seen again from people in-game. I tend to get 40-60 ratings the first day I post anything, and then 1 every few days or so after the rating average gets to 4 stars. It's discouraging.
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...man, I *wish* I had results like that. Only one of my arcs has had any play outside my global friends (see below), and that one has been stuck with no new plays in the past week. Nothing else I have has gotten any attention at all.
Dropping to 4 stars is definitely a death sentence for an arc, though, and for added fun there's absolutely nothing the creator can do to prevent it. The current rating system is utterly horrible.
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The system built around the MA I'm not so happy with. I feel like things I make are seen for about a day, then never seen again from people in-game. I tend to get 40-60 ratings the first day I post anything, and then 1 every few days or so after the rating average gets to 4 stars. It's discouraging.
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...man, I *wish* I had results like that. Only one of my arcs has had any play outside my global friends (see below), and that one has been stuck with no new plays in the past week. Nothing else I have has gotten any attention at all.
Dropping to 4 stars is definitely a death sentence for an arc, though, and for added fun there's absolutely nothing the creator can do to prevent it. The current rating system is utterly horrible.
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I wouldnt say its a death sentence.
More that its a death sentence unless you tirelessly self promote.
Want comedy and lighthearted action? Between levels 1-14? Try Nuclear in 90 - The Fusionette Task Force!
Arc ID 58363!
the problem is that there are so many arcs that you could choose to just play 5 star arcs and you wouldn't run out for weeks.
I don't think there has ever been a problem with too much content in CoX before. But there is now.
I have had fun with the system. While not perfect its very flexible to suit the many different desires of the playerbase. I think its been the best add on to COX ever.
The development team and this community deserved better than this from NC Soft. Best wishes on your search.
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Dropping to 4 stars is definitely a death sentence for an arc, though, and for added fun there's absolutely nothing the creator can do to prevent it. The current rating system is utterly horrible.
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I'm hoping word will get around that, with all the griefing going on, the four-star area is actually where all the really good stuff is.
Dec out.
It has been interesting for me in many ways. I had really slowed down playing one character when he hit 50 but now I use him to play MArcs and to test ideas. A second effect is that I am back WRITING again (at least in COX).
Working with the MA interface can be a pain sometimes. Cut and paste doesn't work or things refuse to update. Also some maps can be a pain. I tried to get around this by working on the .storyarc file in Wordpad but that is too dicey. (One of my test files got corrupted).
I love making custom critters but find making them balanced difficult. I test with many of my alts and making things challenging for one AT or Notoriety makes it impossible for another. Balance is important for me because I solo a lot.
So far: 2 arcs, 27 plays, 15 ratings (4 stars each), and around 8 feedback comments.
I am exhausted after spending tons of time working on my missions, but am enjoying it.
Personally I'm having a blast 
For me it isn't about making something popular or 5 stars. I just wanted to make something that's fresh and more than your standard radio/farm. If that means no one plays it but myself and the pugs I get together then so be it.
I just put up my first arc this morning and I'm pretty proud of it, even with the size constraints limiting my vision somewhat. And I can't deny that being able to put some of my 5 year old characters in the game as allies and AVs is an almost out-of-body experience 
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My experience was AWESOME. For a week there I was bringing to life all the ideas that I'd been pondering since the Architect was announced -- fine tuning, tweaking, playtesting, WRITING. It was wonderful and probably one of the highlights of my year so far.
Then it went live, I published 3 of my remaining 8 stories, and I never wrote again.
Maybe once whatever microtransaction / vet reward / craftable slots go in with a patch or I15 arrive, I'll be able to use it again. Until then I don't want to nuke my ratings by pulling down what I've got up, and if I write any MORE I'll be digging myself deeper in this hole, so I've been putting it aside in hopes of using it again one day.
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This is what I'm afraid of. And because of that fear, I went in the opposite direction.
I have 3 full slots open luckily; so I'm taking my time with Act II, to make sure I get everything "just right" for my 3-act "maxi-arc", because I don't want to run the risk of missing something. I want each arc to hit the ball outta the park with people.
I'm hoarding those open slots right now: Two to finish my "Ghost" series, and then one more as a one-shot arc for humor's sakes. And then it'll be a wait and see. I don't want to take my arcs down, so what I'm hoping to do is get them DC'd or HoF'd with luck, so I can write more...
If I need to, there IS always my second account... but yeah, for as awesome as Architect is, I'm feeling paralyzed by the publish restrictions. =/
@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!
So far, go good. Before I even got into Open Beta, I had story ideas floating around inside my head. The real trick was to see what could be done in the Mission Architect, and what could not. Needless to say, writer's block was not an issue.
However, making one's own preconception about how a story arc should play out and what the exact capabilities of the MA Editor were have been a struggle. Finding the map that best fits a mission, limiting the number of custom characters you put into a story, making best use of preexisting character models and then renaming a few just to save some space, working withing the 100k limit, not overpowering your custom characters so that they either dominate the mission or dominate the player characters (unnecessarily), And of course, making sure all the text is spelled correctly (minus flavor text spellings).
The biggest thing that took me by surprise though, was that once I had thought that I had play tested the story arc enough (at least about 5 times through) and released it, I kept going back and fix, changing, running text dialog back through spelling and grammer checkers (WORD 2007), or modding it. It was like I had released an Open Beta version of my Mission Arc.
I'm wondering if this is a lot like what the Devs experience when they release new story content in Beta on the Test Server.
How has the MA Authorship experience been for you? What stumbling blocks have you encountered that you didn't expect and what did you find easy? Has this given you a new appreciation or understanding for how much effort it actually takes to make new story content?