Add "Unkillable" option to Test Mode.
By
Aces_High,
Posted on: 2009-05-15 07:09 in Suggestions and Ideas
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You want a downside? Ok, Here ya go.
Because there are badges and rewards you get while running missions in test mode before publishing them, and an unkillable mode would allow them to exploit and farm them with no risk involved.
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That's their fault for putting badges in a test mode, sorry to say.
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No, adding a god mode without heavy restrictions would be their fault. If there is little or no risk involved then you should not get any reward be it badges or tickets.
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As an option, I really don't see why people think it's a bad idea and feel the need to down the OP. Oh wait...this is the suggestion forum, that's what they do here. 
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You want a downside? Ok, Here ya go.
Because there are badges and rewards you get while running missions in test mode before publishing them, and an unkillable mode would allow them to exploit and farm them with no risk involved.
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... so have kills not count when in that mode. *shrug*
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Yeah, I mean, that's really not a hard fix. Pretty much a no-brainer, actually.
Issue 16 made me feel like this.
Warning: This poster likes to play Devil's Advocate.
To my knowledge you don't get tickets, rewards, Inspirations from test mode. Only thing you get is badges. Yes... people would use "god mode" to farm those badges. But really, adding a feature like this would help the people actually working to make quality arcs.
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As an option, I really don't see why people think it's a bad idea and feel the need to down the OP. Oh wait...this is the suggestion forum, that's what they do here.
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You want a downside? Ok, Here ya go.
Because there are badges and rewards you get while running missions in test mode before publishing them, and an unkillable mode would allow them to exploit and farm them with no risk involved.
Virtual Victor
Virtual Destroyer
Virtual Warrior
Virtual Soldier
Virtual Slayer
Virtually Impulsive
Virtual Button Masher
Virtually Curious
Virtually Unpredictable
Virtually Erratic
Mission Seeker
Mission Investigator
Mission Detective
Mission Inquisitor
Mission High Inquisitor
Virtual Ticket Taker
Virtual Ticket Hound
Virtual Ticket Fiend
Virtual Ticket Master
Virtual Golden Ticket
Bug fixer
Virtual Destruction
Virtual Decimation
Virtual Obliteration
Virtual Marauder
Virtual Cataclysm
Payoff
Of course your snarky attitude could be because your still feeling butthurt over the Rikti Comm Officer exploit getting fixed.
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Badges do jack poop. Most badges can be obtained with no risk. This is just more, S&I forum downing an idea for any reason or none.
The City of Heroes Community is a special one and I will always look fondly on my times arguing, discussing and playing with you all. Thanks and thanks to the developers for a special experience.
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As an option, I really don't see why people think it's a bad idea and feel the need to down the OP. Oh wait...this is the suggestion forum, that's what they do here.
[/ QUOTE ]
You want a downside? Ok, Here ya go.
Because there are badges and rewards you get while running missions in test mode before publishing them, and an unkillable mode would allow them to exploit and farm them with no risk involved.
Virtual Victor
Virtual Destroyer
Virtual Warrior
Virtual Soldier
Virtual Slayer
Virtually Impulsive
Virtual Button Masher
Virtually Curious
Virtually Unpredictable
Virtually Erratic
Mission Seeker
Mission Investigator
Mission Detective
Mission Inquisitor
Mission High Inquisitor
Virtual Ticket Taker
Virtual Ticket Hound
Virtual Ticket Fiend
Virtual Ticket Master
Virtual Golden Ticket
Bug fixer
Virtual Destruction
Virtual Decimation
Virtual Obliteration
Virtual Marauder
Virtual Cataclysm
Payoff
Of course your snarky attitude could be because your still feeling butthurt over the Rikti Comm Officer exploit getting fixed.
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Badges do jack poop. Most badges can be obtained with no risk. This is just more, S&I forum downing an idea for any reason or none.
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Yep, just as I thought, your still mad about the MA getting fixed. 
I hope no one who thinks developers don't use "god mode" for a portion of the testing cycle ever goes into game or level design. You would never see a finished product.
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I see several "how do you know if it is too hard" objections, which would be valid if the author stayed in godmode through the whole design cycle.
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You don't have to test the mission before you can publish it, so it isn't like allowing someone to cut-out part of the cycle by "pre-viewing" the mission in test mode by using an "unkillable" tester setting.
I think this "unkillable" tester setting would allow you have some grasp of how powerful creatures are even if they can't kill you. The easiest way would be to allow a character to be beaten down to 0 hp, but they simply don't fall as they normally would.
I think it is a good idea because you could use it to concentrate on the surroundings and the mission texts with out worrying about being defeated. I find it much easier to find text coloring issues when I'm running a mission. I also find when spell checking and grammar checking my own work it is easier to catch things when the are in a different frame of reference. This goes for all my writing in general.
So if I'm paying more attention to staying alive then "testing" - aka checking -, then I'm not really able to do the "testing" - aka checking - that is the whole point of running that kind of test.
I will admit that I do much of my "testing" live for xp at any rate. That goes from group testing to final mission testing. If it is a group test or far from being completed I simply unpublish it. If it close to being completed it just jump right on to editing as soon as I've completed it and just republish it when completed.
I've debated about chiming in on this thread for a while, but I might as well since I agree that it would be a useful development tool.
Long, long ago when I was making a computer game, I put in a "unkillable" mode simply so I could check to make sure everything was working as intended. This feature definitely makes sense.
Both modes of testing are very useful.
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I hope no one who thinks developers don't use "god mode" for a portion of the testing cycle ever goes into game or level design. You would never see a finished product.
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The devs don't use their god mode to exploit the system in order to get rewards for no risk.
And if you bothered to read all the responses you'll have seen that I agreed to Memphis Bill's suggested compromise of removing all rewards while in god mode.
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I hope no one who thinks developers don't use "god mode" for a portion of the testing cycle ever goes into game or level design. You would never see a finished product.
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The devs don't use their god mode to exploit the system in order to get rewards for no risk.
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Actually, if they're even semi-competent as developers, they better do exactly that. They should be trying mightily to see how the system could be exploited and having god mode can help with that.
The City of Heroes Community is a special one and I will always look fondly on my times arguing, discussing and playing with you all. Thanks and thanks to the developers for a special experience.
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I hope no one who thinks developers don't use "god mode" for a portion of the testing cycle ever goes into game or level design. You would never see a finished product.
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The devs don't use their god mode to exploit the system in order to get rewards for no risk.
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Actually, if they're even semi-competent as developers, they better do exactly that. They should be trying mightily to see how the system could be exploited and having god mode can help with that.
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Nice try but you fail. They try to prevent exploits, not use them to get an advantage over other players.
I dunno about anyone else, but I can't solo an AV. If I put an AV in my mission, it's so that a team can take it on. I cannot always pick up 7 competant people to run Test with, therefore I cannot always ensure that everything after the AV functions properly.
For the record, the Devs have a literal "I Win Button" power. It's part of testing, and any developer worth their salt needs the ability to break the rules of the game. I once worked on developing a MUD, and had a similar "Finger of God" ability which flat=out killed anything, no exceptions.
While these abilities are justified, the existance of Test badges complicates the matter.
The off-beat space pirate...Capt. Stormrider (50+3 Elec/Storm Science Corruptor)
The mysterious Djinn...Emerald Dervish (50+1 DB/DA Magic Stalker)
The psychotic inventor...Dollmaster (50 Bot/FF Tech Mastermind)
Virtue Forever.
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I hope no one who thinks developers don't use "god mode" for a portion of the testing cycle ever goes into game or level design. You would never see a finished product.
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The devs don't use their god mode to exploit the system in order to get rewards for no risk.
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Actually, if they're even semi-competent as developers, they better do exactly that. They should be trying mightily to see how the system could be exploited and having god mode can help with that.
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Depends on what all you throw under "God mode."
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I hope no one who thinks developers don't use "god mode" for a portion of the testing cycle ever goes into game or level design. You would never see a finished product.
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The devs don't use their god mode to exploit the system in order to get rewards for no risk.
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Actually, if they're even semi-competent as developers, they better do exactly that. They should be trying mightily to see how the system could be exploited and having god mode can help with that.
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Nice try but you fail. They try to prevent exploits, not use them to get an advantage over other players.
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Have to disagree - again, depending on what they call god mode.
Let's take the old Comm officers map. Now, if you're just looking at "God mode" being indestructable/I win button, then no, it doesn't help. If you throw more dev tools under that - exact copy of a good, say, Fire/Kin build, and the ability to spawn a map for 8 while being solo? That would.
That's not doing it to get an advantage over other players. No, they don't use it to exploit it to get advantages over players... but they certainly *can* use them for testing, which would (in theory) help prevent exploits from hitting live. (Obviously they don't catch them all.)
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I hope no one who thinks developers don't use "god mode" for a portion of the testing cycle ever goes into game or level design. You would never see a finished product.
[/ QUOTE ]
The devs don't use their god mode to exploit the system in order to get rewards for no risk.
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Actually, if they're even semi-competent as developers, they better do exactly that. They should be trying mightily to see how the system could be exploited and having god mode can help with that.
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Nice try but you fail. They try to prevent exploits, not use them to get an advantage over other players.
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Have to disagree - again, depending on what they call god mode.
Let's take the old Comm officers map. Now, if you're just looking at "God mode" being indestructable/I win button, then no, it doesn't help.
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This was the reasoning behind my objection. As long as this feature is designed so it can't be misused to get rewards for no risk I have no objection to it.
If you put Godmode on then you not really testing it. : P Beside godmode make everything easy and boring the Deves have better things to do.
Bill, you changed your Avatar!
NEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!
More seriously:
The OP said nothing about using it to test mission difficulty. He wants to test text flow, mission flow, etc.
Some kind of Test Mode for that seems perfectly reasonable. With the restrictions already described.
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Bill, you changed your Avatar!
NEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!
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Yes, yes I did. More of a buff. From unleashed-mutation strong guy surrounded by fire to dragon-kin controlling both fire and storms...
I still think of you as the cat.
Heh. 
Still have that one around, too. >.> Felt the need to change, though. Full piece here. (Just because the artist's easy to work with and cheap... I like pointing people to him.)
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Heh.
Still have that one around, too. >.> Felt the need to change, though. Full piece here. (Just because the artist's easy to work with and cheap... I like pointing people to him.)
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Nice.
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You want a downside? Ok, Here ya go.
Because there are badges and rewards you get while running missions in test mode ...
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Which surprised the heck out of me first time I started designing an arc. Sure suppress them - in test mode (my preference) or god mode, either way.
My scrapper doesn't need an AoE. She IS an AoE.
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My only concern with this is that there are *already* so many missions out there where the author seems to have just thrown something "cool" in without regard to difficulty.
"Your mission's getting one starred because it's just impossible."
"But I didn't die when I tested it."
"Were you using Unkillable mode?"
"Well, yeah..."
"Hello, McFly!"
... should not be a conversation that needs to be had.
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Variations on this theme are almost inevitable when works of fiction go to the general public without a going over by an unbiased and critical editor.
My scrapper doesn't need an AoE. She IS an AoE.
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Heh.
Still have that one around, too. >.> Felt the need to change, though. Full piece here. (Just because the artist's easy to work with and cheap... I like pointing people to him.)
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Nice.
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Yeah that full piece is awesome.
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Heh.
Still have that one around, too. >.> Felt the need to change, though. Full piece here. (Just because the artist's easy to work with and cheap... I like pointing people to him.)
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Nice.
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Yeah that full piece is awesome.
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Like I said, I like to point people his way. He impressed me, he does good work, and is "good people" in general.
Cartel approved! *stamp* >.>
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As an option, I really don't see why people think it's a bad idea and feel the need to down the OP. Oh wait...this is the suggestion forum, that's what they do here.
[/ QUOTE ]
You want a downside? Ok, Here ya go.
Because there are badges and rewards you get while running missions in test mode before publishing them, and an unkillable mode would allow them to exploit and farm them with no risk involved.
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... so have kills not count when in that mode. *shrug*
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That would be a fair compromise. No badges or rewards can be eraned while in the unkillable mode.