Something was changed by the developers in a patch that occured after the story was published, and the change invalidated the story in some way.
For example, the author used a map that has since been pulled because it needs to be fixed.
If Brevity is the Soul of Wit, Why are You Reading This?
Sometimes patches break published missions, and when that happens there's no indication to you as the Mission Player that the mission is actually broken. I think that's probably what's happening. If you were experiencing this phenomena with the same mission, that would be a different problem, I think.
I believe that a Kheldian Gold Standard should be based on SO's, and for anything above that... there's Platinum!
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
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Something was changed by the developers in a patch that occured after the story was published, and the change invalidated the story in some way.
For example, the author used a map that has since been pulled because it needs to be fixed.
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They REALLY need to document that in game better. I went through a dozen missiosn looking for one I could actually play. Drove me nuts as all the ones that looked interesting with 4 stars were 'broken'.
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Something was changed by the developers in a patch that occured after the story was published, and the change invalidated the story in some way.
For example, the author used a map that has since been pulled because it needs to be fixed.
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They REALLY need to document that in game better. I went through a dozen missiosn looking for one I could actually play. Drove me nuts as all the ones that looked interesting with 4 stars were 'broken'.
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There should be a warning on the description page that lets people know that the arc is unplayable. Maybe have it show up with an orange tint like the error messages in editing. At least if you see that color show up, you don't even have to bother opening the description.
No AV/EBs Deal with The Devil's Pawn-207266 Slash DeMento and the Stolen Weapons-100045 Meet the Demon Spawn-151099 Feedback
Dang - I knew that and forgot it.
I was wondering this same thing in-game last night when I couldn't start an arc
Would also be nice if the author received a notification as well that their arc was invalidated.
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Would also be nice if the author received a notification as well that their arc was invalidated.
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Amen. The only way they know now is if someone is nice enough to send them a PM, or they try to play it themselves. There needs to be some kind of notice to the author that is triggered, at least once, by an arc becoming unplayable for any reason.
No AV/EBs Deal with The Devil's Pawn-207266 Slash DeMento and the Stolen Weapons-100045 Meet the Demon Spawn-151099 Feedback
What would be really nice is if the devs would copy all existing published arcs over to test, then run a validation utility against them all. If any come back invalid - fix the problem with the code before releasing the patch.
But nah, way too much trouble for them to bother I guess - put the onus on the players...
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 )
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What would be really nice is if the devs would copy all existing published arcs over to test, then run a validation utility against them all. If any come back invalid - fix the problem with the code before releasing the patch.
But nah, way too much trouble for them to bother I guess - put the onus on the players...
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Which is one place it should be.
With World of Warcraft there is a TON of user made content in the mods that people write for the game. I actually can't play it vanilla any more. I need my interface mods, my bag mods and to a degree my quest helpers.
But when a new patch comes out they let everyone, including mod developers, get on the test server, and it's up to the mod developers to test their own stuff out and see if it works. It is not the responsiblity of WoW to do that, and I kinda don't see it as the responsibility of us here. We have 3 maybe 4 arcs to maintain. If they could at least flag our broken arcs so we can know they're broken with the patch then we can go in and fix them.
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What would be really nice is if the devs would copy all existing published arcs over to test, then run a validation utility against them all. If any come back invalid - fix the problem with the code before releasing the patch.
But nah, way too much trouble for them to bother I guess - put the onus on the players...
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Which is one place it should be.
With World of Warcraft there is a TON of user made content in the mods that people write for the game. I actually can't play it vanilla any more. I need my interface mods, my bag mods and to a degree my quest helpers.
But when a new patch comes out they let everyone, including mod developers, get on the test server, and it's up to the mod developers to test their own stuff out and see if it works. It is not the responsiblity of WoW to do that, and I kinda don't see it as the responsibility of us here. We have 3 maybe 4 arcs to maintain. If they could at least flag our broken arcs so we can know they're broken with the patch then we can go in and fix them.
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I can't say I agree with you. I'm very familiar with having to constantly update mods in WoW, and it gets to be a royal pain. The problem with WoW is that they dont seem to differentiate between an "internal" interface and the "external" interface they present to the customer base. The external interface should be fairly static, but it isn't.
Just because "WoW does it" doesnt make it a valid business model.
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 )
They need to add in a pop-up when a new patch goes live, saying in big bold letters: ONE OR MORE OF YOUR PUBLISHED ARCS MAY HAVE BECOME INVALID, CHECK THEM. Judging from the number of threads on this topic, people don't know why their arcs won't start. Never mind the myriads of people who don't read the forums.
Mod developers are a minority, they have extensive knowledge of the game and go to test servers and forums. The MA is supposed to be usable by the masses.
Also, arcs that are invalid for any reason shouldn't show up on searches. Assuming the devs aren't going to clear out arcs by inactive accounts, how many invalid published arcs are going to be clogging up the search in a few months?
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
I agree, 100%. What really bugs me, when I think about it, is that they're going to end up with thousands of arcs that are either broken and can't be played, or were made by people that only did it as a joke with no intention of ever touching it again, or players that made them have quit the game, etc., etc... On top of all those, we'll have all of the banned farming arcs, that seem to be replaced as fast as one becomes banned.
All of that crap will end up bloating the servers with useless junk, while those of us that really want to tell a good story will still be limited to 3 slots. Eventually, they might even have to reduce the number of arcs that we can publish because all that glut will be filling up the server. They really need to set up some way to at least move some of that stuff (inactive accounts/banned arcs) somewhere else, or delete it, to make more room for the rest of us that wish we had more slots available.
No AV/EBs Deal with The Devil's Pawn-207266 Slash DeMento and the Stolen Weapons-100045 Meet the Demon Spawn-151099 Feedback
Okay, another quick question. When you go to the MA store, in the upper left hand corner of the pop-up menu it says Tickets on Hand and the below it, Tickets to claim. Where are the Tickets to claim coming from? I mean, how did those generate any differently from my Tickets on hand, which I assume are what I just earned in an MA arc?
Tickets to claim come from other people running and rating arcs that YOU have authored. You get 5 tickets per star, and they can be claimed by any of your toons. You can decide how many to claim when click, so if you had 30 claimable tickets, you could claim 17 on one toon, and 13 on another.
(84554) A Mid-Winter's Night Dream
(148487) Punk 'n' Pie
Thank you very much. I didn't remeber reading anything like that.
back on topic what else could it mean? because I went to play one arc and I couldn't enter it. when I clicked on it nothing happened.
BUT when I went back later and still couldn't get in I noticed that the count on the game had gone up. doesnt that mean that others were able to play it and that the arc isn't broken. this make no senseto me. why can they get in and i can't.
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Sometimes patches break published missions, and when that happens there's no indication to you as the Mission Player that the mission is actually broken. I think that's probably what's happening. If you were experiencing this phenomena with the same mission, that would be a different problem, I think.
[/ QUOTE ]Apparently, the game is supposed to detect when an arc is invalid, and remove it from the public list when detected, so people won't attempt to play arcs that they can't play. But either the detection or the actual removal from the public list is broken.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
Sometimes I click on a MA mission, hit the Accept Button to play ... and then nothing happens. Try over and over, same mission, nothing happens. No entrance to mission.
Try another mission, do the exact same thing, and the contact becomes available.
What's going on? Anyone know?