Issue 14 Closed Beta starts today
By
3dent,
Posted on: 2009-02-13 20:46 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
I don't roleplay either, but I love creating stories. I have some (hopefully) good ones in my head around a lot of the minor villains and heroes that we face in our careers, the throwaway ones like Ubellman or Jim 'Thunderhead' Bartlett, that kind of thing.
I'll have deadly serious "HOLY [censored] IT'S THE END TIMES UNLESS YOU DO X" ones and slightly humourous ones "First came the Radio, then the Television, now it's the Blender's turn!" (Final product will hopefully be nothing like that though).
And since I generally only solo or duo anyway, I won't be taking a player away from other people. Take that evil, inaccurate Statistics!
"Idealism is such a wonderful thing. All you really need is someone rational to put it to proper use." - Kerr Avon
Myopic Aardvark on Twitter
Likewise.
Certainly, the MA will not interest 100% of players, but niether does PvP, and look how much time they have wasted on that over the years (to the effect of ticking off practically everyone). Badging, or collecting IO sets are also optional activites that not all players are interested in.
One thing to note though, whilst MA missions do not carry the same rewards as some other missions, they do have thier own rewards. Most notably, badges. A lot of badges. Badgers are going to be very busy making and playing MA missions.
I really should do something about this signature.
QR
Is there a rule somewhere that says "Any new content has to appeal to everyone all the time?" No, thought not. It's free, it's something different to do. It gets my vote.
@SteelRat; @SteelRat2
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Mission Architect good or bad thing? not quite decided myself I can see peoples views of it from both sides of the coin.
One thing I do feel about MA is that it has most prob come at a wrong time, what with all the commotion with brighton I could see people getting very concerned for the state of the game and bringing out an issue that basically says you deal with your own content rather then us have to come up with new stuff (i.e. Tf's, content for villians, new AT's etc.) will hold doubts for some people.
But on a plus side there will be endless hours of being able to put our stamps into the game, also quite a few badges to keep badgers busy for sometime.
But alas with any plus there's always has to be a negative somewhere along the line, and can see people views on the low numbers on servers being lessened by people creating missions, this will need some addressing imo as you can create as many missions as you like but if there is no one on to play them it will be a big waste of time, I think how long it will take to create there missions will be a big factor, if you can knock a mish up in a couple of hrs I can't see it being a problem, but if it takes people upto a month to get everything right in their mishes they could find themselves publishing there mission to a handful of people who themselves have being creating mishes, as everyone else has gone to other mmo's that is more populated by people playing the game than inventing stuff for it.
So after wittering on about the pluses and the minuses I am back where I started and still unsure about this issue.
Guess I'll do what I normally do.
Patience is a virtue and I have plenty of it.
Too many 50's to list here's a few you may know.
Slazenger, Area51, Area53, Area54, Erruption, Mind Plague, Thresher, Sheath, Broadside, Debt
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QR
Is there a rule somewhere that says "Any new content has to appeal to everyone all the time?" No, thought not. It's free, it's something different to do. It gets my vote.
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totally the point ...its free , if you doont like / want it what have you lost ? otherwise enjoy on of the rarest things you will find ..some thing free 
All people will do is farm Behemoths anyway!!!
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One thing to note though, whilst MA missions do not carry the same rewards as some other missions, they do have thier own rewards. Most notably, badges. A lot of badges. Badgers are going to be very busy making and playing MA missions.
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Don't forget the "skeeball tickets" thing that was mentioned, whatever that is. The name sounds like they are supposedly used to buy some stuff, but we'll see.
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Whats RPing got to do with making missions?
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My thoughts too. Mission architect could just as well be used to make "custom" mission that suit your characters, like an invuln tanker going up against enemies that primarily do smashing/lethal damage etc. If it will still get you xp, it could be an alternative to leveling by doing missions against ill-suited enemies.
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All people will do is farm Behemoths anyway!!!
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There's nothing wrong per se with the MA. On the face of it it's a great idea.
But the bottom line, to me, is making it the companies major thrust on the eve of its first direct competition coming out is a major mistake.
It just seems to me that NC, have known for an awful long time that theyre about to be hit by a game that, on the face of it has far more ideas and diversity not to mention its brand new.
They should, in my opinion have raised their own game and, over the last 6 months launched pre emptive content to try and match the up coming competition.
My opinion is that the MA isnt it.
It will impress a number of players who will want to create missions. It will, temporarily i suspect, attract players who think its cool to play other players missions.
But, when all is said and done, its just minions, bosses and glowies. Same as.
I am curious as to whether we will get the same tools to create missions as the devs ?(if not how can we provide enthralling content?)
And if we do get tools to enable us to create missions that exceed the current type we are served, then what does it say about the professionals, paid to give us the best mission content they could over the last 5 years?
Back to my point, what I note is that MA doesnt require innovative thinking or imagination from the devs. It doesnt require them to think out of the box to look for new ways to entice players. It simply means they lend us their tech.
So to me, who accuses them of lacking in imagination to the extreme, this is the lazy mans way of appeasing the player base.
So, while I do applaud the MA in and of itself, I don't think its gonna be the be all and end all and I think Nc has missed the boat, in terms of grabbing extra player base in time for CO, big time.
Don't get into a flap. It's only my opinion and I'm thick
Arc 56763 Lord Anarchys heaven
2 mission arc. Bring friends cause Lord Anarchy means business...
The greater the variety of options for entertainment in this game, the longer the appeal will last. I, for one, welcome our new Jackanory Overlords!
�How do I like my MMOs? I like them the way Paragon Studios used to make them.� - a fitting tribute from kiasa.org
EU, Union mostly.
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I am curious as to whether we will get the same tools to create missions as the devs ?(if not how can we provide enthralling content?)
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From the sound of it we'll get something that will let us create story-arc type missions; no custom maps though.
That should be enough to produce stuff of a par with existing top-rated story arcs (Phipps, new Faultline, etc...)
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And if we do get tools to enable us to create missions that exceed the current type we are served, then what does it say about the professionals, paid to give us the best mission content they could over the last 5 years?
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I don't think it would really say anything; you seem be overestimating the abilities that should come with the tag "professional". Allowing for tiny dev teams at various times, and the fact that people aren't likely to have been working on nothing but new missions for the entire period, we might be looking at an average of 1-2 professionals doing missions over the last 5 years.
When MA comes in, there could be 1,000-10,000+ people suddenly working on missions; many of those people will be experienced gamers and GMs, some will have designed online missions before for other games, some may well be professional authors or scriptwriters.
I'm sure there'll be a lot of dross, but at the same time I'd be amazed if those 10,000 people coming out with new arcs didn't manage to come up with at least a few that equalled, or surpassed, existing content.
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All people will do is farm Behemoths anyway!!!
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You can't 
You get ONLY XP, iirc, not even pool A drops.
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I'm sure there'll be a lot of dross, but at the same time I'd be amazed if those 10,000 people coming out with new arcs didn't manage to come up with at least a few that equalled, or surpassed, existing content.
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Absolutely. Even if tiny 0.1% of arcs would be any good, that's still dozens, maybe hundreds of good ones. Finding them might ber a problem though, look at any fanfiction site...
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. Even if tiny 0.1% of arcs would be any good, that's still dozens, maybe hundreds of good ones. Finding them might ber a problem though, look at any fanfiction site...
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Arent we able to give the missions a grade?
Don't get into a flap. It's only my opinion and I'm thick
Arc 56763 Lord Anarchys heaven
2 mission arc. Bring friends cause Lord Anarchy means business...
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. Even if tiny 0.1% of arcs would be any good, that's still dozens, maybe hundreds of good ones. Finding them might ber a problem though, look at any fanfiction site...
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Arent we able to give the missions a grade?
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All people will do is farm Behemoths anyway!!!
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You can't You get ONLY XP, iirc, not even pool A drops.
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I'm sure there'll be a lot of dross, but at the same time I'd be amazed if those 10,000 people coming out with new arcs didn't manage to come up with at least a few that equalled, or surpassed, existing content.
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Absolutely. Even if tiny 0.1% of arcs would be any good, that's still dozens, maybe hundreds of good ones. Finding them might ber a problem though, look at any fanfiction site...
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The only problem is that you are still going to have to wade through those 10,000 to find the good ones, and as it seems to be something like the Arena aracdes, that in itself will be a pain.
Before people say, I know there will be rated missions, but as far as I can see, what is to stop those still being [censored], but just having lots of friends or SG mates to vote for them despite that.
When they introduce custom maps a la NWN, then I may get excited about the MA. Till then.......where is I15?
Zhaan, Chakyra, Fiorina 161, Aeryn, Polly Nation, Dee Pression, Shazanne, Night Jester and too many more to mention.
Network Hell 47640
Valley of the Harpies 74519
Green and Pleasant Land 75966
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All people will do is farm Behemoths anyway!!!
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Council actually.
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You can't You get ONLY XP, iirc, not even pool A drops
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Still able to farm for XP then. Power levellers dream.
CoH PvP SG = SuperUnion - Co-Leader - Union/Freedom
CoV PvP VG = Disruption - Co-Leader - Union/Freedom
Global = @Rent & @Rent.
Playgroup are all **** - Global Handle
it's the same thing all over again, america first, and europe can clean up there mess again.
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There's nothing wrong per se with the MA. On the face of it it's a great idea.
But the bottom line, to me, is making it the companies major thrust on the eve of its first direct competition coming out is a major mistake.
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It's not though, is it. Issue 15, the big story advancing issue, is the one that will come out on the eve of CO.
Not that CO is really the "first direct competition". You only have to look at the big drop in numbers when WAR was released to see that.
I really should do something about this signature.
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. Even if tiny 0.1% of arcs would be any good, that's still dozens, maybe hundreds of good ones. Finding them might ber a problem though, look at any fanfiction site...
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Arent we able to give the missions a grade?
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Only thumbs up or thumbs down.
I really should do something about this signature.
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it's the same thing all over again, america first, and europe can clean up there mess again.
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IT'S ALL GONE TO TEH AMERICANS!!!!!
@True Metal
Co-leader of Callous Crew SG. Based on Union server.
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it's the same thing all over again, america first, and europe can clean up there mess again.
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Try writing coherent, incisive, well thought-out and presented discussions and guides, with proper capitalised sentences, rather than whining that it's not fair.
Surely that is a much more effective way to get into a beta, rather than complaining that the US gets all the treats (and I believe the EU have had beta testers before anyway).
If I was in charge Mids, Arcanaville and Samuraiko (for example) would always get beta invites. Random people complaining it's not fair, either here or in the US, would get squit all.
�How do I like my MMOs? I like them the way Paragon Studios used to make them.� - a fitting tribute from kiasa.org
EU, Union mostly.
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. Even if tiny 0.1% of arcs would be any good, that's still dozens, maybe hundreds of good ones. Finding them might ber a problem though, look at any fanfiction site...
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Arent we able to give the missions a grade?
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Only thumbs up or thumbs down.
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That's a pretty telling grade (it should also be noted that the graders are getting graded too, so that they can't just grade everything one way or the other).
"Idealism is such a wonderful thing. All you really need is someone rational to put it to proper use." - Kerr Avon
Myopic Aardvark on Twitter
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the graders are getting graded too,
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Quis gradet ipsos graders? (Anything is better with Dog Latin puns) Or, better, how this is supposed to work? How do you (for instance) know if my grades are any good?
I don't personally, but they've said that if someone keeps grading negatively then that'll get "flagged up".
Now whether that is negative grading against a single author or just 3 times in a row, I don't know.
It just means that you can't be in a foul mood and log in and go destroy people's attempts to get the badges.
Or it may not work that way at all. Wish I knew. *Waits for I14 patiently*
"Idealism is such a wonderful thing. All you really need is someone rational to put it to proper use." - Kerr Avon
Myopic Aardvark on Twitter
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it's the same thing all over again, america first, and europe can clean up there mess again.
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Try writing coherent, incisive, well thought-out and presented discussions and guides, with proper capitalised sentences, rather than whining that it's not fair.
Surely that is a much more effective way to get into a beta, rather than complaining that the US gets all the treats (and I believe the EU have had beta testers before anyway).
If I was in charge Mids, Arcanaville and Samuraiko (for example) would always get beta invites. Random people complaining it's not fair, either here or in the US, would get squit all.
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you're really missing the point, totally.
the US ALWAYS has the first laugh in this, the EU is just walking the side ways all the time.
i am not complaining, i say the fact, if you can't deal with it, your problem.
I have a few ideas for some humorous missions - and a few serious ones too
@Golden Girl
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