Mission Architect Bugs and Problems list
By
Aisynia,
Posted on: 2009-07-16 13:51 in Mission Architect
I started a thread on this when the AE was first released. Most of those problems still exist, but I think the thread has been purged.
Going from memory:
* Ally ambushes don't work
* Souvenirs will disappear at random
* Souvenirs are stored per-installation, which makes them visible to all characters that log in through that installation (even if on different accounts)
* Freakshow faction has incorrect level range designation
* Family faction has a level range gap which results in bizarre instance behavior
* Mission editor will sometimes refuse to publish arcs even though no errors are shown
* Mission editor will sometimes erroneously claim circular dependencies among chained objectives where none exist
* Editor refuses to allow editing of text fields at the first character location of the field, if the field already has any text
* Editor will often scramble text if typing temporarily introduces two contiguous spaces (probably result of   substitution being incorrectly accounted for in character counting)
* Mouse clicks sometimes "bleed through" to panels that are supposed to be collapsed, which can cause unintended changes (i.e. trying to click-to-edit text in mission detail 2 sets the faction for mission detail 1, which is hidden, from "custom" to "standard")
* Ticket vendor window and recipe inventory window cannot be open at the same time
* All patrol text is issued as soon as mission is entered, which causes players not to be able to see the text and also causes $name substitution to fail (note: also happens in general PvE)
* Allies set to "run to nearest door" or "wander" when freed will only do so when a player is in visibility range, and will otherwise simply stand still
* Rescues cannot run to door when freed on outdoor maps, and will instead simply stand still (after playing any rescue animations). [Note: I'm not sure this one should be fixed since some authors may be relying on this behavior for story purposes.]
* Some maps have escort waypoints that are not reachable due to being underground or otherwise outside of geometry. The St. Martial causeway map and the Perez Park (Shadowhunter) map both exhibit this but there may be others.
New to i15:
* Help text for spawn locations on mini-maps has legend tags for "boss spawns" and "ally spawns" reversed
* Story arc feedback comments will disappear at random
* Story arc feedback comments are stored per-installation, which makes it difficult/impossible to track feedback when using multiple machines to play the game
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines
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* Freakshow faction has incorrect level range designation
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Are you referring to the fact that specific Freakshow critters only exist in the 20-45 bracket although the faction as a whole goes up to 54? I15 added individual 40-54 critters.
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* All patrol text is issued as soon as mission is entered, which causes players not to be able to see the text and also causes $name substitution to fail (note: also happens in general PvE)
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This doesn't happen on all maps, a more accurate description would be that all patrol text is issued as soon as the patrol spawns, ie when the section of the map they spawn in is populated.
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* Rescues cannot run to door when freed on outdoor maps, and will instead simply stand still (after playing any rescue animations). [Note: I'm not sure this one should be fixed since some authors may be relying on this behavior for story purposes.]
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This does not happen on all outdoor maps, so if anyone knows of specific maps with this problem that would be nice.
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
Some more bugs I thought of:
*Setting the minimum level range of a mission to "default" can sometimes set the mission to [some random huge number]-54. This makes the arc invalid, but no warning appears.
*Setting a specific level range for a mission can cause the "enemies operating at a level lower than design intent" warning, even if all enemies in the mission exist at the minimum level chosen. This seems to happen with custom groups made up of standard critters.
*When a specific minimum or maximum level is set, changing it back to "default" can cause the editor to close.
*When a specific animation is chosen, changing it back to "default" can cause the editor to close.
*Editing a standard NPC contact can crash the client when you click "Save."
*Default contact descriptions don't show up in the "ask about this contact" field. They must be manually entered in that field, taking up more file space. This applies to both standard and custom characters.
Also a question on missions auto-failing when a freed captive leaves the map: Is this only happening with timed missions, or has anyone seen it happen with missions that have other conditions for failure (escorts, escaping bosses, defendable objects.)?
And if anyone has any more detailed info on the current Family bugs: Is it just the level 30-40 range that isn't spawning at all? Or does it affect the 20-30 range as well? Are they not spawning at all for both heroes and villains? What about low-level Family, I have read that they won't spawn below 20 for heroes, but need more details.
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
New with the last patch: Missions with destructibles have had those objects reset to empty, invalidating the arc.
Adding to the frustration: Trying to fix and republish these on a Mac results in the arc not publishing (and thus not being fixable), AND a mapserver error, dumping you to the login screen.
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* Rescues cannot run to door when freed on outdoor maps, and will instead simply stand still (after playing any rescue animations). [Note: I'm not sure this one should be fixed since some authors may be relying on this behavior for story purposes.]
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This does not happen on all outdoor maps, so if anyone knows of specific maps with this problem that would be nice.
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Hm. It happened on all outdoor maps I've tested, which include the now-unavailable burning forest, the Perez Park/Shadowhunter map, the Talos outdoor island-to-the-side map, the Dreck map, the Dark Astoria graveyard used in the TV arc, and the St. Martial causeway map.
I haven't tested any but the Talos map recently though, so maybe some of them got fixed.
As for the other bugs, I was going from memory, and some were bugs I recorded but never personally experienced; so take them with a grain of salt.
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines
One more: chaining destructible objects can make them untargetable until "aggrod", which can be a problem for ranged characters. Targeting through pets works. I believe this one's still around because someone mentioned it in another thread.
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines
[ QUOTE ]
And if anyone has any more detailed info on the current Family bugs: Is it just the level 30-40 range that isn't spawning at all? Or does it affect the 20-30 range as well? Are they not spawning at all for both heroes and villains? What about low-level Family, I have read that they won't spawn below 20 for heroes, but need more details.
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The problem is limited to heroes.
The issue is this: certain groups have mobs that appear to be somehow flagged "villains only." It's not a problem for villains because there appear to be no mobs anywhere flagged to be exlcusive to heroes.
The clearest illustration of this at work in the normal game is the Circle of Thorns and the Valentine's Day event missions. Heroes alone will never encounter Hordlings, Hellfrosts, or Succubi, yet adding a single villain to the team will allow them to spawn (and thus let heroes get the badges). It's not a problem with CoT because there are other things in those level ranges.
It is a problem with Family because there are multiple level ranges where they spawn in CoV but not in CoH. Everything Marcone (essentially everything outside 20-29 and 45-50) seems to be flagged "villains only." The game tries to honor that flag at all costs; it would rather spawn a +10 mob than spawn a villain-only mob in a heroic mission. Putting them in custom groups seems to help, though I have gotten some confused and peculiar results trying to test it.
It's also problem for Carnies (or was last time I checked), since 30-39 Carnies are likewise exclusive to CoV and flagged as such. A level 30 hero attempting an allegedly 30-54 Carnie mission will find himself facing +10s.
It's apparently not an issue with Tsoo, possibly since 30-40 Tsoo spawn in Siren's Call, accessible to both factions.
It could conceivably cause problems with the 15-29 Crey in CoV, but that's untestable because of another lovely issue:
Late in I14 closed beta pohsyb added some sanity checks to helped ensure things spawned at the level they were supposed to spawn. Part of that was cross-checking individual mobs against the "official" level span of their groups. That had an irritating side effect: any critter that didn't intersect its group's "official" level span effectively disappeared from the MA. That includes all the 15-29 and 25-29 Crey (a full assortment of fully functional minions, lieutenants, and bosses), but not the 21-30 Protectors, which overlap the "official" 30-54 level range.
That's also the reason Tub Ci and Serafina aren't available: both of them have minimum levels in the 40s, but Tsoo cap at 40 and Legacy Chain at 30. They're in the architect, they just are no longer accessible as they exist outside their factions' level ranges. (There were also some high-level Troll and Warrior EBs, but they never actually appear anywhere in game.)
The fix for the Crey problem is simple: list them as a 15-54 group (like I said multiple times through beta...). The Tub Ci/Serafina issue could be worked around by extending their minimum levels down into their factions' ranges.
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This does not happen on all outdoor maps, so if anyone knows of specific maps with this problem that would be nice.
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Hm. It happened on all outdoor maps I've tested, which include the now-unavailable burning forest, the Perez Park/Shadowhunter map, the Talos outdoor island-to-the-side map, the Dreck map, the Dark Astoria graveyard used in the TV arc, and the St. Martial causeway map.
I haven't tested any but the Talos map recently though, so maybe some of them got fixed.
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Hmm, sounds like all the maps you've had this problem on are the ones with the orange box entrance. Incidentally, the outdoor maps that I KNOW captives run to the exit on have other entrances, such as a truck...I've also done escorts on some of these maps, and they worked correctly.
Could be related to the "exit is somewhere under the map" escort problem with these maps...the captive wants to run to the door but doesn't know where it is?
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
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Hmm, sounds like all the maps you've had this problem on are the ones with the orange box entrance. Incidentally, the outdoor maps that I KNOW captives run to the exit on have other entrances, such as a truck...I've also done escorts on some of these maps, and they worked correctly.
Could be related to the "exit is somewhere under the map" escort problem with these maps...the captive wants to run to the door but doesn't know where it is?
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You're right. I hadn't realized it before now, but that sounds like it's the missing ingredient. I haven't tried any of the truck related outdoor maps with this particular issue.
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines
new Escort bug:
IF you have your Escort NPC set to 'betrays on arrival' and have his melee set to 'Fight (Defensive)'; when he/she betrays, he/she will just stand there and not fight back as the PC pounds your NPC.
(Workaround: if the NPC is set to 'Fight (Aggresive)', he/she reacts normally and starts fighting the PC when he/she betrays.)
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new Escort bug:
IF you have your Escort NPC set to 'betrays on arrival' and have his melee set to 'Fight (Defensive)'; when he/she betrays, he/she will just stand there and not fight back as the PC pounds your NPC.
(Workaround: if the NPC is set to 'Fight (Aggresive)', he/she reacts normally and starts fighting the PC when he/she betrays.)
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This seems to be an issue with 'fight defensive' in general at present. Sometimes allies/escortsset to this will display highly erratic behavior, such as not fighting until the player takes damage from something, stopping sporadically and refusing to follow the player, etc. 'Aggressive' does fix this, though. In fact, it seems to have become the new 'fight defensive', since I've not noticed allies/escorts set to it actually run off far from the player like they used to.
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
I'm not sure if this is a bug or working as intended:
When running a mission with a custom group on heroic difficulty, all custom bosses, elite bosses and archvillains will be downgraded to lieutenants, bosses, and elite bosses, respectively, EVEN ON A FULL TEAM.
Edit: Also, the AE ticket vendor doesn't sell damage resistance DOs.
...I forgot what experience means.
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In fact, it seems to have become the new 'fight defensive', since I've not noticed allies/escorts set to it actually run off far from the player like they used to.
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It doesn't happen as often now but it still does. I was testing and aggressive does lead to better ally behavior, especially with meleers, but still sometimes they will just take off into the next spawn.
Escorts on the other hand stay on Defensive, I don't want to annoy players by turning a failable objective into an aggro-magnet.
Bug: The code to down-level mobs that are above the mission's level range will only bring them down to the maximum level for the mission.
So, for example. Suppose I put a boss that's normally level 20+ into a mission that's set to 6-14. That boss will spawn at level fourteen. Always. Even if you're coming in on a level six character.
AE Ticket vendor doesn't sell Endurance Recovery DOs either.
Several animations have disapperaed from the Escort/Captive sections of the editor. Most notably, the majority of the Captive set such as Captured: Cowering
EDIT: This could just be a funky lag problem since I was able to get this working. Could someone else please confirm?
The Lou's Garage map seems to have a glowie spawn point outside of a wall. This may be post I15 as no one had reported problems with my arc that uses that map until recently.
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Several animations have disapperaed from the Escort/Captive sections of the editor. Most notably, the majority of the Captive set such as Captured: Cowering
EDIT: This could just be a funky lag problem since I was able to get this working. Could someone else please confirm?
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Some emotes aren't available for some critters. If you were using the same critter for both attempts it was probably a funky lag problem.
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
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This seems to be an issue with 'fight defensive' in general at present. Sometimes allies/escortsset to this will display highly erratic behavior, such as not fighting until the player takes damage from something, stopping sporadically and refusing to follow the player, etc. 'Aggressive' does fix this, though. In fact, it seems to have become the new 'fight defensive', since I've not noticed allies/escorts set to it actually run off far from the player like they used to.
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I've noticed this getting worse with each patch. 
I would also like to add to this NPC allies do not use some powers at all. For example, I have a /Regen boss as an ally in an arc I am working on that I have never seen use Integration. I tried customizing the powers to remove several from the set as a test, and still no luck. I've noticed this with a couple of other sets as well.
Also, NPC allies immediately leading off with their Tier 9 powers upon rescue (when no NPC enemies are even around) needs to be addressed.
Shard Warrior - 50 MA/Regen/BM Scrapper
Founding Member and Leader : Shadow-Force
Co-Leader: Council of Heroes
"Whatever evils come this way... we will be there to stop them."
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I would also like to add to this NPC allies do not use some powers at all. For example, I have a /Regen boss as an ally in an arc I am working on that I have never seen use Integration. I tried customizing the powers to remove several from the set as a test, and still no luck. I've noticed this with a couple of other sets as well.
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There are some really obnoxious problems (IMO) with the behavioral differences in ally and foe AI. Try making a custom foe and fighting it, then edit to switch it to an ally and compare its behavior. In my experience, an ally attacks more slowly, often spending a significant time standing around doing nothing even when in range of a foe. In general, it will also use less of its full array powers, sometimes not using certain powers ever (as noted above).
Note that this doesn't appear to affect "friendly" mobs - those who are on your side, but not allies in the sense that they will follow you around. It only affects NPCs who follow you and fight with you.
This is not confined to the AE. This also happens in standard missions with combat allies. It's just in the AE that its deeply apparent, since its relatively easy to observe the same NPC in the same general conditions but on alternate sides.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
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One more: chaining destructible objects can make them untargetable until "aggrod", which can be a problem for ranged characters. Targeting through pets works. I believe this one's still around because someone mentioned it in another thread.
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Confirmed. I'm facing this is an arc I'm working on. I pub'ed it, /bugged it, the devs looked at it and emailed me that it's a known bug.
I don't know if attacking them through pets works, I'll have to try that. I've heard that AoEs will "awaken" them to normal status, but neither my Rain of Fire or my Caltrops did the trick.
Also, there were some targets that I was never able to agro apparently, even after getting up close and trying to bap them with Sands of Mu.
Best work around I can think of? Don't make them singular, needed to complete the mish or tie deathly important clues to them unless you plant it/them in multiple places.
I can confirm a custom critter AI bug regarding power usage. It's widespread. Critters will get locked in a cycle of waiting for one power to refresh and use only it. This seems to happen with any attacks that recycle quickly, most notably something like Parry, but I've also got one lieutenant that will do nothing but use Jawbreaker, even when he has two other attacks to hit with.
I've also noticed a recurring bug where critters will not properly activate their secondaries, when this should always be active for them.
I have a mission published that this occurs in, if any dev would like to test my observations.
Generators have apparently dissappered from all the object lists. This happened when they did a fix last week. I have like 4 different maps that use them and the replacements just dont look right.
A new one, thanks to FoundBoy and the player who let him know about it:
Timed missions will fail if a required ally dies after being rescued.
It looks like non-required allies can die all they want.
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
The purpose of this thread is to start up a list of known bugs, issues, and things that just don't work right in Mission Architect. The purpose of such a list is two-fold: 1) To have a single, unified list to bring to the attention of the devs, and 2) As a reference for architects who can't figure out why their mission won't work.
As with other known issues lists, this will have to be a community effort. So if you find a bug, something that doesn't work as advertised, etc, post it here, along with any workarounds you may have discovered. Do not post anything that can be viewed as an exploit, obviously, and please don't quote this entire post in your reply.
Also, this isn't a wishlist. We all want options that are currently unavailable, but please start another thread. This one is for options that are available but don't work right, or have been removed with no patch note.
I came up with some tentative categories, to better organize the list, so please list what category your bug fits under, or make up your own. This is totally a work in progress that needs your input.
General Bugs--stuff that doesn't fit into any of the other categories, basically. (examples: Timed missions auto-fail when a captive leaves the map, custom critter/Elite Boss/Archvillain warnings don't distinguish between enemies and allies)
Standard Enemy Group Issues--for standard enemy groups that don't spawn properly at certain levels, that don't scale down properly when the mission level is set, or just don't spawn properly in general. Also, for unusual standard enemy behavior that is confined to the Mission Architect. (example: Carnies don't spawn below 40 for heroes.)
Custom Critter Issues--for unusual and/or bugged behavior with custom critter powersets, AI, or spawning patterns. (examples: Critters with /devices spamming Web Grenade to the exclusion of all other powers, allies not using their toggles.)
Problematic Maps--for maps that don't work right. This can include maps that ignore front/middle/back placement, maps that mix up front/middle/back placement, maps where triggered events routinely won't spawn, etc. Please include the category and name of the problematic map. (example: Tech Abandoned > Small 2: blinkies set to "back" will spawn in the middle and blinkies set to "middle" will spawn in the back)
Where Did My <Blank> Go?--for maps, objects, enemies, emotes, etc that have been removed from the Mission Architect with no associated patch note or redname comment. This section is more of a player resource, so people don't have to keep asking "where did the burning forest go?" (examples: Burning Forest map, Crey Clone Lab map, Generator destructible object)
Text bugs --for issues with text, both with inputting text in the mission editor and text problems in the mission itself. (examples: double spacing adds the "nspb&" string, NPC dialogue can trigger from too far away, causing variables such as $name to not insert the character's name.)
Once we have a good list of known issues, I'll compile it (giving credit to the contributors) into a nice neat post, which can be updated when necessary.
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