City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Do you read MA mission text? Clues? Descriptions?

Alex_Mars

By Alex_Mars,
Posted on: 2009-05-09 21:50 in Mission Architect

 

Posted

The name of the mission (the one that shows up in the tray) is a key part in your arc as well. Depending on how it is worded is how the entire mission is percieved by the player. For example...

Defeat all spirits in office
Purge all spirits from office
Cleanse office of spirits

They all point to the same basic goal of punching the ghosties, but this perhaps means the difference of angry poltergiest vs. vicitimized wandering spirits.

 

Posted

Solo, yes. I usually take my time and try and catch everything the author included. Teams can be a bit tougher. Especially if said team is steamrolling everything. If that's the case I'll usually try and run the arc again solo to catch anything I might have missed (and to read the contact stuff).

Now that I think about it, it would be really nice if everyone got to read the contact info when you were teamed.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Enemy descriptions are difficult to read -- you have to target them, open a menu, and specifically pick 'description'. They aren't fed to you passively like mission intro/outtros, or behind a single click menu like clues.

Therefore, I treat them as niceties, extras, easter eggs, nothing more. I'll write custom descs, but often it'll just be a one line joke or some other comment about them. Occasionally I'll do some background info on that particular critter, but nothing critical, nothing you NEED to know -- just some enriching text. Can't rely on people reading it.

As for the rest, clues and intro/outtros and dialogue, those are must haves. I also go for redundancy; outtros and intros should summarize your most important talking points, in case people skipped the clues.

And as for people who never read anything and mindlessly zerg because they don't care about story and just want MOAR XP, they're not the ones I'm creating for, so I don't care if they miss out on the plot or get confused as to what's going on. The text is there for those who enjoy stories.

[/ QUOTE ]

What's funny is that the first thing pretty much everyone in my supergroup does on an MA mission when a new enemy shows up, is stops, and checks out their bios, as well as the bios of every boss or special enemy in case something is there. We actually find it really disappointing if there's nothing there - it smacks of laziness if they can't bother with even a single line to explain the enemy. They're often some of our favourite parts of a custom mission. I even have a macro to call them up mid battle if they appear in an ambush.

Least important text overall for us is probably the green text for interacting with clickies, but only because only the person clicking them can see it.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Clues seem to be team unfriendly: they are readable by the clicker, but do not appear for anyone else as far as I know.

[/ QUOTE ]

Everyone can read the clues, they just don't get the "Clue Found" pop-up that the team leader gets.

How important is the enemy description text? One or two without descriptions is forgivable, but if I see a big custom group numbering close to a dozen critters or more and not a single one has a description then I'll take off a star as I won't consider the arc to be finished.

 

Posted

I read everything, and if there's nothing to read I deduct ratings. If a few enemies are missing bios, or if your arc is light on clues, or pop-ups, or dialogue, I might not, but if it's missing all of the above I might as well be doing a paper mission.

The only thing I never fill in myself is the Interrupt text for blinkies. I can never think of anything good to put there. On the other hand, I always fill in the Interact text, even if it's something generic like "Searching...." the interact bar just looks weird if there's nothing there.

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

 

Posted

Heh, I'll use odd things for Interrupts, such as "you blinked, start over", "you hesitate for a moment", "your concentration was broken", whatever is appropriate for the glowie.

I'm glad that everybody in the team can read the Clues (I think they added that to all TFs some time ago, before i11, I believe), but I would like everybody in the team to see the "You Gots Clues OMG!" message that flashes by.

Actually, I'd like to add my own message that could fly by. Would make adding spawned objectives easier for everybody to notice ("Why didn't the mission end? Oh, wait, a boss is left, when did that get added?").

Dungeoncleaners! (ID#125715): Slay the Adventurers! Rescue the Monsters! Return the Treasure!
Peppermint Cat-- Lv50 Mewtant Ice/Eng Bls

 

Posted

I stopped reading them after all I kept seeing was, "Kill 'em all" or "Easy peasy XP" or "Ohai! I can has more farm?"

Seriously, though... if it has a good opening mission description and it looks as if the developer has taken the time to build something cool then I'll take the time to read it. Otherwise... meh.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
I right-click on everything: enemies, allies, objects. I also read everything. As such, I try to make sure my arcs include descriptions, clues, and souvenirs, and am disappointed when I'm playing an arc that doesn't include much in the way of background.

How important is all the "wordy" stuff to you?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm literate and I read for entertainment, but I don't want to be reading a lot during computer play.

In my ideal for arc design I restrict myself to stories I can tell primarily through action, setting, narrative pop-ups, and dialog. The contact's expositions can carry some additional information and flavor. In an arc with a serious tone, the NPC info carries a description that might be needed for clarity. In all cases text is as brief as possible.

As a general design principle, I avoid the necessity of clues. I have two arcs published and neither contains a clue.

Each of my arcs has a brief (one sentence) souvenir text. I treat the souvenir as a mini-badge with a badge description.

The impression I got was that some in this thread would downgrade a rating if text was not found everywhere they looked. That's not important to me. I'd downgrade the rating if missing text caused me to not understand the story, but otherwise I don't care.

As for the clues and souvenirs in a mission I'm playing ... I will never read them.

 

Posted

Before the MA hall monitors came into existance, I would read the mission summary and the technical details. If it looked like something I might enjoy, I played. If not I moved along. Once in the mission I am all SMASH and don't stop to read anything other than the mission objectives in the compass window.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Enemy descriptions are difficult to read -- you have to target them, open a menu, and specifically pick 'description'.

[/ QUOTE ]
/bind [key] "info"

Target mob, hit [key], done.

I'm not commenting on whether mob descriptions are an important part of the game - just letting you know that it is incredibly easy to read them whenever you want.

 

Posted

In the MA, I just open the window once and move it to the side so I can check out each new enemy type as I encounter it. But see, Zombra made it even easier than that, people!

Arc 55669 - Tales of the PPD: One Hell of a Deal (video trailer)
Arc 64511 - The Wrecking Ball
Arc 1745 - The Trouble With Trimbles
Arc 302901 - HappyCorpse

 

Posted

While there's technical info going on. . . Is there a way to set the screen settings (in particular opacity) for individual windows vs. universally? Or even get info to output to a channel vs. the popup.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
While there's technical info going on. . . Is there a way to set the screen settings (in particular opacity) for individual windows vs. universally? Or even get info to output to a channel vs. the popup.

[/ QUOTE ]
Not that I am aware of, but my knowledge is hardly comprehensive.

What I'd really love is a way to change the contact dialogue window opacity - syncing it to chat window opacity would be ideal for me. Having to find a dark, blank wall every time I want to read contact chat got old 3 years ago.

 

Posted

I try to put at least a brief description on any custom NPCs I create, though for "cannon fodder" it's sometimes just a sentence such as "Shroud Gunman prefer to attack their enemies from range". I try to be be more descriptive for my unique "named" NPCs in case the palyer bothers to check, but I don't put any story-vital info there.

 

Posted

Abso-freakin-lutely I read that stuff! That is 85% of the mission for me. If you aren't going to put a STORY into it I don't want to play your mission. As a matter of fact, the main thing about MA that bugs me is they keep REDUCING the amount of allowed text for characters and stories.

Heck I would like it if there were places to introduce more dialog. If I could make my allies say things throughout the mission (even to each others) that would be awesome.

MORE STORY!

Professionally certified pessimism expert

Statesman is someone who shouldn't rap ever, even if he's trying to help people out. -IolitePhoenix

Check out my Infinity toons at the Vis Viva family web page.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
I try to put at least a brief description on any custom NPCs I create, though for "cannon fodder" it's sometimes just a sentence such as "Shroud Gunman prefer to attack their enemies from range". I try to be be more descriptive for my unique "named" NPCs in case the palyer bothers to check, but I don't put any story-vital info there.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm honestly far more likely to read a single-sentence description than a whole paragraph for every minion. The point is, that having even something as simple as your example establishes that "this is a Shroud Gunman" while the generic description basically says "this is a Custom Critter." Shroud Gunman increases immersion and makes your custom group more interesting. Custom Critter is just a costume and some powersets.

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

 

Posted

I read everything, and I wrote my MA arc for the same type of player.

Together we entered a city of strangers, we made it a city of friends, and we leave it a City of Heroes. - Sweet_Sarah
BOYCOTT NCSoft (on Facebook)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/517513781597443/
Governments have fallen to the power of social media. Gaming companies can too.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
...F.E. in my most recent arc, one enemy is an "American Woman". Her description? "Stay away from me!"

[/ QUOTE ]

Is that the one you pulled down? Shoot, I'd be willing to roll a lowbie just to tag along with you on that one in 'test' mode.


"City of Heroes. April 27, 2004 - August 31, 2012. Obliterated not with a weapon of mass destruction, not by an all-powerful supervillain... but by a cold-hearted and cowardly corporate suck-up."

 

Posted

To actually answer the OP:
[ QUOTE ]
How important is all the "wordy" stuff to you?

[/ QUOTE ]
Very important.

Actually I'm not a big fan of overly verbose arcs. A line or two is plenty per clue, per mob description, per boss battle. But it's important for those lines to be there.

Come to think of it, I'm the same way with comics. Substantial blocks of text derail my interest, but if there's little to no text at all I flip through the pages and forget about it.

I do like to see a decent amount of contact text, though. I rely on the contact to put the pieces together from the previous mission and motivate me to proceed to the next one. When the contact says, "Yo, go beat up some Hydra," I'm like, eh. Let's pretend we're having an actual conversation.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
I'm literate and I read for entertainment, but I don't want to be reading a lot during computer play.

[/ QUOTE ]
^^ This. Reading SF is my #1 form of entertainment. Movies (primarily SF) are #2. This game is #3.

When I'm playing, I also don't want to stop and read a story. I appreciate that the creator may have put a ton of work into creating all these clever and amusing bits, but I want the action! (And the only characters I've used in MArch aren't even scrappers!)

I wish, though, that there was an option to have clues appear as on-screen popups. There is sometimes critical info in there, and I hate having to stop, open the clue window, find the latest clue, read it, carefully, to be sure I have any necessary info, close the window, and start up again.

Although now that I've been reminded that I already have a key bound to "Info", I may read more enemy descriptions. Maybe.

 

Posted

And specifically regarding custom and boss descriptions: absolutely. That text is the window into that character's reason for being. Whether he's a fanatical cultist, a paid mercenary, or a terrified slave who's more scared of his master than he is of me, I need to know why I'm fighting these guys, and why they're fighting back. "Because he's standing between you and Point B" is not acceptable for any arc pretending to have a story.

Boss dialogue can definitely illustrate this too, and is equally important, but I still feel a boss is hollow and two-dimensional without at least a cursory narrative description.

Best of all is when a certain character recurs throughout the arc, and the description changes based on intervening events.

 

Posted

When I am out solo or duo I read everything, but when with a group there is usually no time as most groups keep a pretty brisk pace.