Devs, please, for the love of all that's holy

You cannot continue to break arcs with patches without explicitly outlining what is breaking and how to fix it. That's going to cause mission authors to basically give up.

That means no:

- Removal of maps without warning
- Removal of critters without warning
- Increase in space requirements without explanation
- Reduction in maximum text limits without explanation

You need to have arc validation as part of your QA process. Arcs become unplayable == patch not accepted.

I have one published arc, which took me four solid days of work to write. Since then it has taken me another 4-6 days of solid work re-fixing it after nearly every patch that touched the MA. I will grant you that most of that work happened in beta, but two of the most time-consuming incidents happened on live.

OK, done ranting now.

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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

You want warning? Keep abreast of changes being made on the Training room. The latest patch was being developed and discussed by the community for the last 2 weeks.

Hehe, i said "abreast".

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-STEELE =)


Allied to all sides so that no matter what, I'll come out on top!
Oh, and Crimson demands you play this arc-> Twisted Knives (MA Arc #397769)

How did QA NOT catch that the DEFAULT descriptions of dev-supplied content was breaking arcs? Extremely shoddy.

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I suppose it was inevitable that someone bring this up.

I do read the Training Room patch notes. There was nothing there indicating that my arc would be invalidated (yet again). I have no Rikti Comm officers, or Batzul fire imps. I knew about the custom critter power changes but I've set all of mine to "standard" for now anyway, precisely because I didn't want to have to rebalance my arc every patch.

So what you're saying is that I should revalidate my arcs on Test every patch regardless of what the notes say? That's like loading up all my tanks on Test every patch to make sure Gauntlet is still working. I simply don't find that an enjoyable use of my time.

I stand by my original point: the devs need to protect arcs from breaking with no warning when patches arrive, or they risk undermining the whole point of the MA. If they do break arcs for whatever reason they need to clearly state what is breaking and how to fix it. I really don't feel like spending hours debugging broken storyarc files trying to figure out what suddenly stopped working. That kind of thing is OK to ask of players in beta, but not on live.

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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

[ QUOTE ]
How did QA NOT catch that the DEFAULT descriptions of dev-supplied content was breaking arcs? Extremely shoddy.

[/ QUOTE ]

I reported that little bug on the test server several days ago. Guess it didnt catch their attention.

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131430 Starfare: First Contact
178774 Tales of Croatoa: A Rose By Any Other Name ( 2009 MA Best In-Canon Arc ) ( 2009 Player Awards - Best Serious Arc )

You did your job, (and I thank you for it- been a beta tester more time than I can count), but it comes down to the paid QA and the lead of said department, and ultimately to Miller for not checking that industry-standard procedures are followed.

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<qr>

I take it back: maps should just not be removed, ever. Even with forewarning.

Some stories are built on specific spawn location behaviors. Removing maps basically destroys those stories. If there are spawn issues (one map I know had glowies-spawning-in-walls issues) remove the problematic spawn location, not the whole map. Yes, maybe that's more work for you devs. But you know what? I don't care. Suck it up.

Otherwise you're doing the MA equivalent of making energy blast build a cottage.

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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

Very well i see were u are going with this. I agree they do to many patch updates. And they also need to STOP THE DCING! i mean cuz i go to the train but i seem to always lag going right next to AE. And i mean i love this issue....... or did. But i wish we could just get on with the regualr playing that everyone go thier 50s from PLAYING REGULAR MISHS!

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Wasp will sting but....... This WASP WILL kill you!!