I have had trouble with this as well. I can't seem to get it to take level 50 as the minimum so that the very difficult mission that I created can't be spawned at level 45 and taken out by level 50's.
To get them to level 45 has been easy. I just added a fight between my custom critters and some Family (45-54), and the family dies before the characters even get there (Having Fire-Kins, Emp-Defenders, and Psi Blasters makes the custom group a bit tough.)
I really wanted to up the difficulty as a challenge, and did not want to be considered a Farm.
Thanks to anyone that can enllighten us on how to make a custom Boss a certain level.
Thanks!
Here is a re-post of my tutorial. I don't really know where you guys like to post your tutorials, so i'm just going to post it again here. If anybody has any feedback on where i should post this so that people can access it more easily, let me know.
Custom Toon auto-SK tutorial:
The problem with scaleing custom toons is that the level requirements are 1-54. Players are scaled up to the minimum level, 1, and npcs are scaled to the leader's level.
What we want, is a level requirement of 45-54. This way, the level 1-45 player characters will scale to 45. The enemies will scale to 45, or the highest player level, which ever is higher.
To acomplish this, we must understand a little bit about how patrolls and boss fights work in the AE editor. These types of mission details swap out 1 for 1, a standard enemy spawn in the level. If you put the maximum number of these details in the mission, they will completely replace the native spawn type. The level requirement, however, will remain the same as the native enemy type, and the players will be level scaled accordingly.
To get the desired effect, we simply set the misson settings level to a 45-54 enemy group, such as werewolves, and set a single mission detail of boss, patrol or destroy object details.
To get a clasic style COX map, use bosses. Make you're custom boss a minion, or leutenant, if you think that many boss fights would be too chalanging. Make sure to change the surrounding enemies to your custom toon group Don't leave it as 'same as boss', It doesnt work. I like to set all the groups to patrolls because it adds a new level of complexity to the missions, giving them a more tactical feel. Which ever one you chose, if you don't want a destroy all enemies map, remember to click off the required for mission completion toggle under the settings dropdown of your mission detail.
In the settings drop down menu of the mission detail, go to the quantity field and enter the map specific maximum number of allowed ambush, boss, patrol or destroy object details. This number can be seen on the mission setting summary on the right side of the mission settings page.
Don't use any ambush details unless your mission has a full moon. They spawn extra native enemy groups in your mission that you can't replace.
Fill in your manditory dialogue boxes and you are good to go.
So,
Step 1, in Mission Settings, set the enemys for the mission to Werewolves.
Step 2, create a patrol or destroy object detail, and set the quantity as high as it will go. Put your custom toon group here.
change all "same as boss" fields in your bosses to your custom group.
Step 3 fill in all your manditory text fields and debug.
Remember, as uncle benny said, "With great power comes great responsibillity." Please use this info to cultivate your immagination, not to make a mad grab for XP.
Enjoy.
Your melancholy masiah,
Mitch Adams, AKA: Captain-Cosmic (virtue).
Wadams5.com
If you use this tutorial, please credit me in your work. A "Scaling Engineer" credit is nice, but "Special Thanks" will do. Probably won't help me get a job, but every little bit counts. 
The problem is that that doesnt always fit there "stories" we are supposed to be telling.
Some groups have bosses that are hard leveled at 51-51 or 53-53 etc. They just dont always fit with your story.
There is a SIMPLE and ELEGANT solution to all of this. Just remove levels entirely from MA. Everything in MA is considered level 50. Everyone can team with everyone else and play all maps.
The issue here is the Devs considering X mob to be say level 25-30 when in reality there is nothing keeping it from being what ever level it is assigned. This is a contraint from the devs system of trying to make fighting CoT at level 10 different than at level 40; trying to make the game seem fresh and eveolving. That works maybe the first couple of runs thru the levels but cuts out content you might have enjoyed. This conceit is one of the things I had hoped MA would eleviate.
The toons who are effected by this are the higher level ones since the lower ones can play what ever MA maps they choose but higher levels have to go down and not get XP or other rewards and have powers greyed out and be at the mercy of when they choose what during respec.
Captain_C,
I dunno. That seems quasi-exploitish to me. Maybe not. I guess, just by virtue of it seeming like you have to make an end-run around the auto-leveling, that somehow its not correct code behavior.
Then again, technically it should be legal or a non-exploit considering that there are native groups that already span from 45-54 by default anyway.
What other groups in the editor span from 45-54?
Lewis
Random AT Generation!
"I remember... the Alamo." -- Pee-wee Herman
"Oh don't worry. I always leave things to the last moment." -- The Doctor
"Telescopes are time machines." -- Carl Sagan
[ QUOTE ]
Captain_C,
I dunno. That seems quasi-exploitish to me. Maybe not. I guess, just by virtue of it seeming like you have to make an end-run around the auto-leveling, that somehow its not correct code behavior.
Then again, technically it should be legal or a non-exploit considering that there are native groups that already span from 45-54 by default anyway.
What other groups in the editor span from 45-54?
Lewis
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There is a thin line between work-around and exploit. As far as i know, the next issue will allow players to set the level range of their custom enemies. This would imply that i'm just using an option that doesn't exist yet. They may even be able to use this functionality in the next version of the AE software. In which case, i just saved NCsoft a bundle of money.
They may read this and wonder why i didnt partisipate in the AE beta, and i would tell them this. if you're good at somthing, never do it for free. You have my resume. I'm an idealistic company man who would work overtime for peanuts and a modicom of recognition, perhaps a dash of respect.
There are quite a few groups spanning 45-54 I just like werewolves because they're easy to spot durring testing.
Well, Captain,
Thanks for the mini guide, but do you know how to set a mission to lvl 50? I want it to be hard for lvl 50's, not a pushover if they let a lvl 30 pick the mission.
I just put in a battle between Family (45-50) and my custom group, and the family would die long before the characters ever saw them. But that only leveled the group to 45, not 50, which I would greatly prefer.
I also don't want a bunch of lvl 12's entering and getting attacked by the fire kins, Psi blasters, and AV's
Thanks,
Steve
Captain_Cosmic,
I tried your solution and it just isn't working. Or maybe it is, but it isn't addressing what my actual problem was.
When I followed your instructions, the level range of the mission was indeed set to 45-54. No problem with that. However, I was already doing that correctly in my own mission by putting a single hostage of level 45-54 (a werewolf) in the map.
My problem is that when I run the map on unyielding with a level 50 character, my lower level characters are auto-sidekicked to level 44, NOT to level 45. That happens with my setup and with yours.
To be certain I was following your instructions here is what I did:
(1) I created a "collect object" as my mission complete.
(2) I set my foe type to Werewolves (45-54).
(3) I then created a "destructible object" details with 27 instances (the max for the map).
(4) I then set the enemy group surrounding the destructible objects to my custom group (instead of "same as boss").
(5) I set the other minimum mission details.
(6) I tested it on a team of 3, with a level 50 driving on unyielding, and a level 40 character along with a level 32 character.
My 2 lower characters are level 44 in the mission, not 45.
I also tried the exact same setup without the Collect Object as the mission goal, but instead I made a Boss (one of my custom group) the goal. The group was still werewolves, but the maxed destructible objects all had my custom group selected.
So, basically, this isnt getting me any different results than my map where I simply made it with my group and placed one hostage of level 45-54: my sidekicks are level 44, not 45.
Perhaps the patch from this week changed it? Of course, as long as I'm driving with characters of level 49 or less, I'm fine, but I like to play characters up to level 50, drive them at level 50, and invite all my friends to play, who can then either sidekick to me or to other friends or simply auto-sidekick to the level allowed for XP by the devs if they think they can handle the heat. But with things as they are, they are only sidekicked to 44.
Any suggestions?
Lewis
Random AT Generation!
"I remember... the Alamo." -- Pee-wee Herman
"Oh don't worry. I always leave things to the last moment." -- The Doctor
"Telescopes are time machines." -- Carl Sagan
Just as a follow-up, I noticed that when I run it on difficulty 4, my sidekicks are 44. On difficulty 5, they are level 43. On difficulty 2 they are level 45. What the HECK is up with that? Did the programmers accidentally reverse the calculation somehow?
EDIT: Looking at another thread, it may be intentional, but its kinda stupid. Apparently the code is applying the difficulty setting on both the top end and the bottom end. The foes will be 1 level over 50 on unyielding, but it also makes the player level 45 - 1, or level 44. It must be a coding defect, since ideally someone sidekicked to 45 would be 5 levels off a foe on difficulty 1 or 2, and 6 levels off on unyielding and 7 levels off on invincible. However, they end up being 5, 9, or 11 levels off. Definitely borked.
Lewis
Random AT Generation!
"I remember... the Alamo." -- Pee-wee Herman
"Oh don't worry. I always leave things to the last moment." -- The Doctor
"Telescopes are time machines." -- Carl Sagan
[ QUOTE ]
EDIT: Looking at another thread, it may be intentional, but its kinda stupid. Apparently the code is applying the difficulty setting on both the top end and the bottom end. The foes will be 1 level over 50 on unyielding, but it also makes the player level 45 - 1, or level 44. It must be a coding defect, since ideally someone sidekicked to 45 would be 5 levels off a foe on difficulty 1 or 2, and 6 levels off on unyielding and 7 levels off on invincible. However, they end up being 5, 9, or 11 levels off. Definitely borked.
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Only kind of borked. If you go in with a group that's all lower or equal to the bottom end, it works. If you go in with a group that's all higher or equal to the top end, it works. It kind of fails if you've got some of each, especially if the level range is substantial and the difficulty levels are turned up.
For a clearer example, let's look at a mission with a valid range of 30-45. Assuming difficulty 1, anyone less than 30 will be brought up to 30, and anyone over 45 will be brought down to 45. The mission will probably spawn at 45, although that may depend on who has the star. This isn't going to work well (ie, some folks will not get exp and/or not be contributing) w/o some "traditional" SK or EX in the mix. Adding difficulty affects both the bottom and the top players, and therefore ranges.
This is one of several reasons why single-level enemies (42-42, 54-54, etc.) seem to have been favored for farms; everyone is auto-smooshed into the same level barring difficulty settings.
For more normal play, you're probably wanting to either rely on traditional SKing, or pick missions that are equal to or just slightly higher than the highest person on the team, so everyone is being raised up and the difficulty is being applied uniformly. (Doing it the other way also works, but people generally dislike loosing powers.)
For example, if you've got a group of friends ranging evenly from 29 to 42 and are depending only on the MA scaling, you are probably going to get a better experience if you play missions locked to 45-50 (and hope the 28s are well slotted). You may get better results by having the 42 SK the 29 up to 41 traditionally, though, making sure the 29 is on the lowest difficulty, and picking a somewhat lower ranged mission.
tl;dr: try to either only raise or only lower people's levels, and the lowest level character may need to keep their difficulty turned down.
Miuramir, Windchime, Sariel the Golden, Scarlet Antinomist...
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Only kind of borked.
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I would say straight out borked, in that your example only proves my point: when auto-sidekicking to the bottom of the mission range, the +1 and +2 level effects are doubled. You end up receiving +2 and +4 in level difference instead. When sidekicking to any person, you only get the +1 and +2 you are supposed to get.
It was probably put in to prevent farming by picking 45-54 enemy groups. Which is odd, considering that it is considered acceptable to get experience at 5 levels below the leader, because reasonable contribution is possible.
But no biggie, we can just sidekick to the 50s if need be. All we really lose is that hardcore feeling of "oh crap" on the lowbies, which is fun.
Lewis
Random AT Generation!
"I remember... the Alamo." -- Pee-wee Herman
"Oh don't worry. I always leave things to the last moment." -- The Doctor
"Telescopes are time machines." -- Carl Sagan
All,
I'm really baffled on how people make their missions auto-exemplar to level 45 or 46. Or even 48. I thought all I had to do (based on another older thread I found) was add a "free captive" and select something in the 45-50 range.
I tried a werewolf, and in the captive detail, I specified a werewolf lord. And it almost works, but even on difficulty 4, any people I bring in are being set to level 44 on the exemplar.
Is there some other detail I am over-looking? How do you do this? I unlocked all the special enemies and maps etc with my tickets and I dont see any other level ranges either. I'd be fine with a level 48 auto-exemplar as well, though I would prefer 46 or 47.
Thanks,
Lewis
Random AT Generation!
"I remember... the Alamo." -- Pee-wee Herman
"Oh don't worry. I always leave things to the last moment." -- The Doctor
"Telescopes are time machines." -- Carl Sagan