Mission Architect Academy

NPC Kheldians do use shapeshift, actually. So...might be implementable in future, or something.
GodsDAMN, I might need to download Test just to try this out

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

[ QUOTE ]
The Dev's choice will only be the best of the best and the popularity of a creator will not effect it that much. This comes because the rating system is also global.

[/ QUOTE ]
I may have missed something on this.. but don't you mean the Hall of Fame (which uses the rating system) as opposed to Devs choice (which, funnily enough, uses a devs personal choice)?

As such it would be possible, although unlikely, that the devs really loved the humour/style of a mission arc that the players absolutely hated and so promoted the arc to devs choice even though it never got anywhere near Hall of Fame.

Practically, I'd expect a lot of devs choice to come from the Hall of Fame (and near-misses) as the devs only have so much time, so they're unlikely to spend it looking at every single arc... looking at ones that get some popularity from players would be an easy first-pass filter.


[ QUOTE ]
If youre an incredible popular player/creator on UNION... you will not get enough ratings to get into the list even if you get all sub's on UNION voting 5 stars for you. This means you need to get the votes from the other servers too. As they never heard of you will get a better rating. Getting into the high ranks will NOT be easy.


[/ QUOTE ]
Ex Libris (US redname) posted that The Hall of Fame is where the best player rated content goes. To get to this rank you need to have over a 1000 votes with an average of 5 stars (we round up).

I'd guess that this means they'll be using a straight mean average and anything over 4.0 gets rounded up. But I'm pretty sure that the requirements will get tweaked in time as that's still going to be darn hard if people vote as comes naturally.

People vary in how they award ratings, and AFAIK it's pretty common to find people who stay away from the top-end ratings or away from both extremities of the available rating range. Throw into the mix the fact that you need more than 2 people voting 5 stars to counteract a single person who didn't get/like the mission and awarded a single star, and if enough people vote like I naturally do and very seldom give top marks then all you need is 1 or 2 people marking low and the arc will never make it to Hall of Fame.

Big example...
1500 people vote as follows:
100 1 star
200 2 stars
300 3 stars
400 4 stars
500 5 stars
The mean average would be c. 3.666 (=5500/1500). Rounded up that's 4.

So we'd have 900 people who rated it 4 or 5 out of 5 and they aren't enough to overide 300 who thought it less than average (if 3 is considered average).

So how many people would need to vote 5 stars just to move this arc into HoF territory?

Turns out that if an extra 500 voted, and all gave 5 stars, the mean average would just hit 4.0, so still not quite enough... so that'd give us the following distribution (which only hits a 4.0 mean):
2000 people voted as follows:
100 1 star
200 2 stars
300 3 stars
400 4 stars
1000 5 stars

So getting an average rounded up of 5 could be pretty darn hard... OK - it ain't meant to be easy, but not even making it in the above example (where 50% of the votes were for 5 stars, and only 15% were below 3) just seems ridiculously hard...


btw I've not seen anything about the dynamicism of HoF. Do HoF missions still get rated? Can they fall out of the HoF if their rating falls?

Over time I'd guess that the ratings will change as our expectations of MA missions change - something that is published within the 1st week and impresses people may seem like amateur old-hat a couple of weeks later...

Conversely something launched in the 1st week may be given conservative ratings (as people keep 5 stars back for something really great) but only later be seen as a really good mission when no-one is surpassing its quality a month later, but AFAIK once an account has rated an arc it cannot re-rate (even after the arc is edited/republished)...

BTW - no doom in this. I just think some things will change in what we know about ratings/HoF so far. It's a first stab at it by the devs, and it may even change before going live.

[ QUOTE ]
PRAF - You spotted something I haven't (in which case can you point me at it please?) or are you just hedging?

Admittedly not able to customise which powers in a set are utilised could be described as 'limited', i.e. limited to the point of unavailability.

[/ QUOTE ]

The level that you choose your mob to be should at least affect what powers are available. Other things might affect it to (e.g. rank). Tweeking the AI (melee or ranged) will affect wether or not a power is actually used. There are a few dev comments dropping hints around.

[ QUOTE ]
More than possible. It has been stated that EATs (i.e. kheld and arachnos player charcters) powersets won't be in at launch.


[/ QUOTE ]

Also said MM sets wouldn't be in, and the screenshots tell otherwise.

[ QUOTE ]
I think a big thing missing would be the kheldian shapeshifting

[/ QUOTE ]

PPD PBs have shapeshifting.


What I would actually like to know is if you can assign NPC sets to a custom model. I want to create robot EBs with malta sapper powers for one of the missions I have planned.

[ QUOTE ]
The Thug powerset is on the screens... So it will be in.

[/ QUOTE ]
I think it will be in, but all I'd say for certain is:
[ QUOTE ]
The Thug powerset is on the screens... So it is on the screens.

[/ QUOTE ]
Although I'd guess not, the screens could be mockups or taken from a dev-only version where they are still working on the thugs set. The thugs set being in the beta or live release appears most likely, but hasn't been confirmed.

I'd rather not take it as 'promised by the devs' status based purely on a small detail in a (more-or-less) promotional screenshot!

I agree, I think that under the current rules, the number of arcs in the hall of fame will be exactly zero.

[ QUOTE ]
The level that you choose your mob to be should at least affect what powers are available. Other things might affect it to (e.g. rank). Tweeking the AI (melee or ranged) will affect wether or not a power is actually used. There are a few dev comments dropping hints around.


[/ QUOTE ]
I may have missed the dev hints! The last few days up to Saturday were mainly TR-based whilst I could, although I managed the odd trawl through the US dev posts...

Not so sure about the level - the NPCs have a habit of having powers and selections unavailable to players, and if Frosty can have summonable pets at lvl 10...

I'm guessing that things like AI/fighting-style selections will affect which powers are normally used, but my guess so far is that it doesn't alter which powers the custom NPC has it just alters which it has a preference for. i.e. a ranged NPC will use ranged attacks and try to stay at range, but I'd hope that it has it's full complement of melee powers and uses them when you immob it and close in!

So it's not so much a user-selectable alteration to powers picked from the set as it is a user hint as to which powers to prefer using.

[ QUOTE ]
What I would actually like to know is if you can assign NPC sets to a custom model. I want to create robot EBs with malta sapper powers for one of the missions I have planned.

[/ QUOTE ]
Pretty sure that this is possible - as evidenced by the US redname responses to their being no kheld/SoA PC powersets. Pretty sure it was stated that you could use the NPC powersets on your custom NPCs, with the example being using NPC kheld powers on custom NPCs to create a rough approximation of your PB/WS character for use in MA missions.

Hmmm. Interesting quote from Posi about the MA Ticket Rewards :

[ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
I thought of a question! With so many account wide unlockables in the MA, are the tickets going to be account wide/tradable? If some of the more awesome unlockables are pricey, it might be difficult for someone who doesn't stick to one alt to unlock them.


[/ QUOTE ]
When people play your arcs, tickets earned that way go into a pool.

You can then claim tickets out of that pool onto any character.


[/ QUOTE ]

So, unlike Merits which I was giving out about last week, it seems the Devs like the idea of MA Tickets being shared across alts.

Linky-poos

[ QUOTE ]
Pretty sure that this is possible

[/ QUOTE ]

There would have to be some restictions, since some mobs use non-humaniod skelletons, the animations wouldn't work.

[ QUOTE ]
Hmmm. Interesting quote from Posi about the MA Ticket Rewards :

[ QUOTE ]

When people play your arcs, tickets earned that way go into a pool.

You can then claim tickets out of that pool onto any character.


[/ QUOTE ]

So, unlike Merits which I was giving out about last week, it seems the Devs like the idea of MA Tickets being shared across alts.

Linky-poos

[/ QUOTE ]
At one level I can see that making sense; Merits are earnt by one toon completing a specific task "in character", while MA items are much more account-oriented concepts.

On the other hand, it looks like MA Tickets are redeemed at toon rather than account level, which undermines things a bit.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Pretty sure that this is possible

[/ QUOTE ]

There would have to be some restictions, since some mobs use non-humaniod skelletons, the animations wouldn't work.

[/ QUOTE ]
True - no doubt there will be some restrictions. Can't recall exactly where I saw it, but the main MA discussion thread on the US boards had some comments re: non-normal-human skeletons. IIRC one of the dev comments was about warwolves and energy bolts possibly being ok but possibly appearing to shoot from shoulders.

Actually, I'm pretty sure that this was a comment regarding the different, but related, issue of customising powersets on existing in-game NPCs, which isn't being allowed (at least in v1.0).

Though your original comment was:
[ QUOTE ]

What I would actually like to know is if you can assign NPC sets to a custom model. I want to create robot EBs with malta sapper powers for one of the missions I have planned.


[/ QUOTE ]
And I think that my answer still stands that yes I'm pretty sure that this is possible (to assign NPC sets to custom NPCs) but, as with anything, there may be restrictions; it's unlikely that every NPC set will be available this way and past performance is no guarantee of future performance.

Although it's possible that they will allow mixtures that could look odd on some custom NPCs - much as they allow clothes that can cause clipping issues with certain other clothes. I'd guess that if the option is there but it looks bad it could be a possible mark against the mission... and if it really doesn't seem to work then the mission designer has the option to not use the set or to try altering the costume/NPC scales/bodytype to get something that works better.

The unlocks that are purchased with MA tickets are account wide.

I wonder if "none" is an option for custom boss primary or secondary?

Standoff:
[ QUOTE ]
On the other hand, it looks like MA Tickets are redeemed at toon rather than account level, which undermines things a bit.

[/ QUOTE ]
PRAF:
[ QUOTE ]

The unlocks that are purchased with MA tickets are account wide.


[/ QUOTE ]
Everything I've read so far seems (to me) to show MA tickets as being account level. There's been talk the (MA-ticket) purchasable add-on packs being account wide and indeed how they need to be as some things are mutually exclusive for any one character to earn.

My impression is that about the only things that individual characters do are:
* be the character to actually play a MA mission
* (Possibly) be the character at the AE building designing/submitting a mission (which is submitted by the account, but I suppose that a character may need to be involved in the submission process)
* (Possibly) be required to visit a MA-ticket vendor to redeem tickets

True it's been said that you could play your entire career 1-50 in MA missions and not be any worse off than someone playing normal missions, which seems to imply that salvage, enhancements and recipes will be available to buy from MA-ticket vendors as well. These, obviously, would be applied to a single character - but I can't see anything to worry about with that.

Am I missing a downside?

[ QUOTE ]
I wonder if "none" is an option for custom boss primary or secondary?

[/ QUOTE ]
You were the last person I thought would be designing a farm of custom bosses with no powers!

[ QUOTE ]
True it's been said that you could play your entire career 1-50 in MA missions and not be any worse off than someone playing normal missions, which seems to imply that salvage, enhancements and recipes will be available to buy from MA-ticket vendors as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

All that is really needed for that is pool A random drops, pool B random drops, and convert to reward merits.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I wonder if "none" is an option for custom boss primary or secondary?

[/ QUOTE ]
You were the last person I thought would be designing a farm of custom bosses with no powers!

[/ QUOTE ]

That wasn't what I had in mind.

To get the AI to behave sensibly, it is useful to limit the number of powers it has to choose from.

"none" as a secondary, but not as a primary perhaps?

[ QUOTE ]
Standoff:
[ QUOTE ]
On the other hand, it looks like MA Tickets are redeemed at toon rather than account level, which undermines things a bit.

[/ QUOTE ]
PRAF:
[ QUOTE ]

The unlocks that are purchased with MA tickets are account wide.


[/ QUOTE ]
Everything I've read so far seems (to me) to show MA tickets as being account level. There's been talk the (MA-ticket) purchasable add-on packs being account wide and indeed how they need to be as some things are mutually exclusive for any one character to earn.

My impression is that about the only things that individual characters do are:
* be the character to actually play a MA mission
* (Possibly) be the character at the AE building designing/submitting a mission (which is submitted by the account, but I suppose that a character may need to be involved in the submission process)
* (Possibly) be required to visit a MA-ticket vendor to redeem tickets

True it's been said that you could play your entire career 1-50 in MA missions and not be any worse off than someone playing normal missions, which seems to imply that salvage, enhancements and recipes will be available to buy from MA-ticket vendors as well. These, obviously, would be applied to a single character - but I can't see anything to worry about with that.

Am I missing a downside?

[/ QUOTE ]

Nope, it's just a bit curious. One could have a level 50 farm-happy toon repeating suitable MA missions to earn MA Ticket drops to feed his brood of hungry alts, a system the Devs said last week they were against for Merit rewards.

Unless I'm missing something (which is rather likely. Needs more caffine)

Well, you are missing the bit where tickets are awarded for other people playing and rating your arcs: farming may not be the best way to get tickets.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
True it's been said that you could play your entire career 1-50 in MA missions and not be any worse off than someone playing normal missions, which seems to imply that salvage, enhancements and recipes will be available to buy from MA-ticket vendors as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

All that is really needed for that is pool A random drops, pool B random drops, and convert to reward merits.

[/ QUOTE ]
True - though working with the current reward merits system that's still something that would be assigned to an individual character rather than the account.

And that is the point: there would seem to be some things which account-wide MA merits will be used to purchase for individual characters.

Like I said though - I don't see an issue with that. Why shouldn't someone be able to get the odd reward for playing MA content? Why shouldn't designers get the odd reward for designing content that others like and want to play?

I'm pretty sure a nice balance can be found that rewards MA-based effort without causing any real balance issues.

About the only thing I can imagine people getting their knickers in a twist about is the possibility that someone could earn lots of merits (and so good recipes) by writing arcs whilst they hardly play the game. But, so what? If someone does this then:
* they've written content that others actively want to play - why not reward them?
* if they mainly write then I imagine that they'll spend the merits on MA-packs to help them create a wider range of content
* if they mainly write and hardly play, then what does it matter if every single power is full of purple IOs?? They aren't playing anyway...

There is one thing I would like with cursom mobs which thier doesn't seem to be available, in the screenshots: flagging as "undead" or "robotic" or "keldian" with respect to special damage.


Oh, yeah, something else that doesn't seem to have been answered yet: If you want to play an outleveled mission in the MA, does it autoexemplar?

[ QUOTE ]
There is one thing I would like with cursom mobs which thier doesn't seem to be available, in the screenshots: flagging as "undead" or "robotic" or "keldian" with respect to special damage.

[/ QUOTE ]
I've already been thinking of this type of flag as obvious v2.0 material. More generally - sure that some form of customisation of relative strengths/weaknesses would be a good idea.

But if v1.0 does go down a storm then I'd have thought some form of map customisation would possibly top it.

[ QUOTE ]
Oh, yeah, something else that doesn't seem to have been answered yet: If you want to play an outleveled mission in the MA, does it autoexemplar?

[/ QUOTE ]
I thought it was answered by pohsyb at around the same time he spoke about mob levels... I'll just have a scan US-side...

EDIT: Found! Emboldening by lil ol' JD:
[ QUOTE ]

Every critter has a level range where they are valid. When you make a mission, all of the level ranges must overlap at some point. If you are outside this level range when you go to play the mission you will be brought up or down to the level rang of the mission.
Example, I use critters A (1-54), B (34-45) and C (40-48). The level range of the mission is (40-45).

If I am level 5, I will play mission at level 40.
If I am level 50, I will play mission at level 45.
If I am level 42 I will play at level 42.
If I am level 5, but have set my difficulty to max, I will play at level 38.


Note: I said mission here, not arc, each mission has an independent level range.




[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks, I missed that one.

Interesting that it is on a par mission basis rather than a per arc basis, and it appears that you don't select the mission level: it it determined by the mobs you choose.

He doesn't say what happens if mob A is 1-20 and mob B is 40-50.

And I think the BP is 20-30 and 40-45.

[ QUOTE ]
Interesting that it is on a par mission basis rather than a per arc basis, and it appears that you don't select the mission level: it it determined by the mobs you choose.

[/ QUOTE ]
I can understand this from the point that you could introduce a story-based rationale for level shifts (you lose most of your powers at the end of the 2nd mission as the skulls have somehow taken them... so it's off to fight skulls in mission 3 to regain powers to fight the main Malta threat in mission 4).

However it's possibly a shame that you can't optionally further limit for the arc for consistency. E.g. if you hav ethe following in an arc:
mission 1 mobs give a range of 20-40
mission 2 mobs give a range of 30-45
mission 3 mobs give a range of 10-40
It may have been a good idea to allow the arc level to be set as any subrange of 30-40.

Heck you could probably implement something fairly easily taking an arc range limits and individual mission limits and using the intersection, default the arc range to 1-50. Could even limit to a single level then.. e.g. a lvl32 mission.

[ QUOTE ]
He doesn't say what happens if mob A is 1-20 and mob B is 40-50.

And I think the BP is 20-30 and 40-45.

[/ QUOTE ]
Well he does say When you make a mission, all of the level ranges must overlap at some point which suggests that you cannot create a mission with mob types that do not overlap at some point. I'd guess exactly how the system stops you is unimportant... maybe a dynamically filtered list (filtering mob types on already selected types) or just a warning/refusal to save when you try to save/move to next stage of design. As I say, unimportant - as long as it works!

BTW - didn't realise that BP has a split range. Is it the case that none of the mob types can exist in the range 31-39 or merely that there are no arcs/missions using them in that level range?? An important distinction, as the latter means that the full range is a continuous 20-45 but no current dev-created content utilises them between 31 and 39.

As far as I know, there are no BP units in the 31-39 level range. The higher level ones where added lataer for a couple of portal missions.

Snakes have an even more dramatic split range. I think it's 1-15 and 45-54.