I like this idea a lot... include your own custom award... like say cash$$ or a damage SO etc... and the code to monitor it is already partially built into the game... via the star system...
it would still need more coding, but you could make it that you get the item once you star the mish (not perfect but kinda already exsisting code)... the only problem is keeping up the supply of goods ( I kow the OP said first time runners only)... so maybe you could provide say 500 SO's which really dont cost that much
need someway to keepit from being abused, which I dont see... but all in all good idea...
I absolutely love this idea. I'll make a promise right now. If this ever becomes a reality I will make a giant map full of nothing but huge packs of Elite Boss's and AV's with a full mix of powers. The mission will be a defeat all and have a 1 Billion infamy reward to the first team to beat it.
You'll end up with people posting the arcs with hero characters that have deep pockets, then completing them with villain characters, all as a convoluted way to transfer inf between sides. Even if you can't reward yourself, you'd be able to have a friend or alternate account earn the reward and trade it back to you. 
Main Hero: Chad Gulzow-Man (Victory) 50, 1396 Badges
Main Villain: Evil Gulzow-Man (Victory) 50, 1193 Badges
Mission Architect arcs: Doctor Brainstorm's An Experiment Gone Awry, Arc ID 2093
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Originally Posted by Nethergoat
it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!
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You'll end up with people posting the arcs with hero characters that have deep pockets, then completing them with villain characters, all as a convoluted way to transfer inf between sides. Even if you can't reward yourself, you'd be able to have a friend or alternate account earn the reward and trade it back to you.
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yeah but who cares about that really... I mean it already happens and there is no way to ever stop it... so get over it... besides transferring inf between YOUR OWN accounts really isnt that much of a tragedy now is it? maybe it is...
A big old map full of identical bosses and no story, with a big old reward at the end vs. a well written arc with no special, player-funded reward at the end. Which do you think...
1) Will get played into the ground?
2) Will fulfill the devs' intent for MA?
I can't see this ever happening.
(Sometimes, I wish there could be a Dev thumbs up button for quality posts, because you pretty much nailed it.) -- Ghost Falcon
I think that MA has the potential to satisfy three different goals:
1) provide story-rich arcs, with a focus on character, motivation and narrative
2) provide missions with above average rewards for those working their way through the elder game content
3) provide challenges that are tougher than the standard content, to challenge and satisfy the players looking for something fresh in terms of the core action gameplay
Clearly these are not mutually exclusive. I would argue that the farming content takes care of itself (perhaps a bit too successfully). The story content is already catered for, although finding the good stuff isn't always easy and hopefully I15 will help with that. The ability to make tough enemies is already there, but there is no way of rewarding players for taking on the rougher enemies.
Now, it is perfectly fair to argue that the reward for beating the tough foes should be the excitement itself. The problem is that the satisfaction depends on having foes that are just the right level of difficulty. How do you find that content?
Allowing players to add rewards to an arc would give players a chance of "throwing down the gauntlet". It is building on the existing practise of costume contests. Combine player funded rewards with the rating system, and the tough-but-fair content will float to the surface.
Another way of thinking about this is to imagine you are trying to form a team to do some AE missions. "Hi, AE team forming, looking to do some really tough missions. Might take a long time and you might die a lot, but we should find some fun as well". Hmmm... how many takers will you get? Instead, you say "Hi, AE gauntlet team forming, going after a 500K prize. I have a good 4 star gauntlet map."
The idea of having a prize is really a way of flagging this kind of content to the players and to create real incentives for the players to create something that is in the sweet spot of difficulty. If the map is too easy, it will be beaten immediately, and all of the prize rewards will be consumed. It will no longer be a gauntlet map. If it is too hard, it will be rated badly, a big warning sign of "AV ambush" or whatever evil tactics the players invent.
This is not a trivial addition to the game, and I am the first one to admit it creates its own set of issues, but I think there is a genuine interest amongst players to tackle tough and surprising content, but this is undermined by the difficulty of finding it, the ease with which we can make unbeatable enemies and the lack of tangible reward and acknowledgement at the end.
Of course, one of the nice things about suggesting things as a player is that I don't need to worry about the budget, or the technical risks of implementing it, but I still think this is something worth considering. What are the exploits? What would prevent it from delivering on the third type of gameplay? How could it be implemented to make it as robust as possible?
Cheers,
Sib
Hi,
I have been enjoying MA since its release, and even if a lot of the content is a bit rough, there is a core of really satisfying content if you can find it. I have even been levelling a vampire-hunting themed character by just doing vampire arcs. It got me wondering: how do you detect, and reward, good MA content? The interest is both professional and personal: until recently I designed and developed MMOs for a living.
The rating system is a start but it cant solve everything. As a player, I want to take on tough but fair challenges, but I also want to be rewarded in proportion to the risk, time and skill required to defeat the challenge. I want to beat enemies that have new tricks, but I want to be rewarded for doing so. Perhaps even more importantly, I want to create tough-but-fair content and reward players who beat it.
It got me thinking: would it be good to allow players to spend their own influence or tickets to add a bonus reward for the first team/s to beat their map? Lets say I spend 500K to add five 100K bonus rewards. That would allow players to search for missions with a reward. There is a bit more at stake, but it also means that as a player, I know that a mission with a reward will be worth the extra risk and effort to beat it.
There would clearly be room for abuse (e.g. a player who makes a mission with a huge reward but filled with unbeatable AVs) but the rating system would give players a chance to vote with their feet. The negative side would be that good missions could get swamped by mission builders with deep pockets, so there would need to be some kind of checks and balances, but there still seems to be some "design goodness" in the idea as a way of luring more players into non-farm MA content. You could easily extend the idea so that players could restrict who can get the rewards e.g. only members of the SG or coalition, which could add a lot of new dynamics to the SG part of the game.
Thoughts?
Cheers,
Sib