MA: I weep metaphorical tears of despair
By
3dent,
Posted on: 2009-04-10 24:12 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Except copying and pasting can also carry hidden tags that the originating program uses into the MA text as well, thus breaking it completely. I've noticed this problem when using Open Office to write the arcs, so I've taken to just opening the .storyarc file in Notepad and editing it there directly...
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What really annoys me is that the devs put an enormous amount of effort into this, when that effort should have been put to better use.
The resources could have been used to create new contacts, missions, mob types, zones etc that are part of the CoX canon.
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Youve got to be kidding me.
Personally I appreciate the effort put in by devs to create something out-of-the-ordinary, but I havent tested the architect long enough to have an opinion yet.
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Long term players have been asking for new zones, mobs etc for a long time now. All the devs have done is to allow players to do the work themselves, and to have these arcs/missions be playable in a virtual setting within the game.
With the best will in the world all of these player generated arcs/missions do not form any part of the CoX Universe. They are not part of the game canon and can never be treated as such.
When the novelty value of MA wears off, all we'll be left with is a lot of MA farming arcs and a multitude of arcs of varying competence.
I would have rather had the devs put their resources into new zones, arcs/ missions, mobs etc that are actually part of the game. The graphics and power customisation are an issue as well. The game needs an upgrade and very soon.
Now, it may be that they have been and that MA simply came first. If so then that's good. If not, it's a problem for this game. It faces stiff competition with the impending release of Champions Online.
I know that plenty of people in my SG are going to have a go at CO. A look at the CO forums quite clearly shows that there are a sizeable number of current CoX players who are waiting to play CO.
As it stands the i14 content is nowhere near enough. Here's hoping that i15 is a lot stronger.
So .. If you are asking am I Kidding you?
Not really.
Proud member of FOXBASE ALPHA and coalition associates.
Hero 50's - 25
Villain 50's - 1
The devs were going to make the MA tool anyway for themselves, to help streamline their mission building work - but they thought it'd be cool to share it with us too - so a lot of the effort put into I14 was going to be done anyway, even if the MA creator was never opened up to the players.
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
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The devs were going to make the MA tool anyway for themselves, to help streamline their mission building work - but they thought it'd be cool to share it with us too - so a lot of the effort put into I14 was going to be done anyway, even if the MA creator was never opened up to the players.
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Well if that is case they should have worked a bit harder and added some content for people not interested in the MA.
Coca Cola dont sell half empty bottles of drink because they are manufacturing new bottles.
What this company do to make their job easier is neither here nor there to the people playing the game.
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Coca Cola dont sell half empty bottles of drink because they are manufacturing new bottles.
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Your analogy would only work if you said the Coca Cola company wasn't adding fanta to its coke bottles...
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This project turns over something like $20,000,000 a year. Dont you think they should have? I mean, they employ programmers don't they?
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Man, I hope NC never hire you. Protip: more money =/= quicker results.
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I said it's crazy to concentrate on this when they should have been trying to match upcoming competitions inventiveness.
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Funnily enough, they've been working on issue 15 alongside issue 14. Basic research ftw.
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You mean the capability to make an architect for themselves is new?
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Of course not - but any project has its limits. There are never unlimited resources. For whatever reasons, those resources didn't get put into this idea in the past; we know the team was smaller before, and run by a different company - these could be factors. Whatever the reasoning though, it just didn't happen earlier... are you trying to say that because it wasn't done earlier, it shouldn't have been done now?
Likewise on your comment about saying they should have had better tools, because they have developers... small team, limited resources, and they've been taken up elsewhere, for whatever reason. I don't really see how it's relevant; I'm glad they've produced better tools now, regardless of whether they should or shouldn't have done it earlier.
It just seems mad to me (and this isn't aimed just at you, as I know you've not said all these things) to complain that the devs should be concentrating on making the game better in some way, or that they should be concentrating on making dev-made canon missions/arcs/whatever when it's clear they've been spending time upgrading their own tools so that they can do these things.
Also seems silly to get too worked up over whether this issue will save the game or whatever when we know how their development cycle works, and we know that I15 and probably I16 are well under way. And also that different people do very different jobs, and I doubt the people not involved in MA have just been sat twiddling their thumbs.
Basically, I just think it's premature to start complaining. If nothing good materialises in I15, then fair enough. In the mean time, the game's received a fair amount of publicity, and my SG's global channel is busy for the first time in a good long while. Something's working.
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What really annoys me is that the devs put an enormous amount of effort into this, when that effort should have been put to better use.
The resources could have been used to create new contacts, missions, mob types, zones etc that are part of the CoX canon.
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Youve got to be kidding me.
Personally I appreciate the effort put in by devs to create something out-of-the-ordinary, but I havent tested the architect long enough to have an opinion yet.
[/ QUOTE ]
Long term players have been asking for new zones, mobs etc for a long time now. All the devs have done is to allow players to do the work themselves, and to have these arcs/missions be playable in a virtual setting within the game.
With the best will in the world all of these player generated arcs/missions do not form any part of the CoX Universe. They are not part of the game canon and can never be treated as such.
When the novelty value of MA wears off, all we'll be left with is a lot of MA farming arcs and a multitude of arcs of varying competence.
I would have rather had the devs put their resources into new zones, arcs/ missions, mobs etc that are actually part of the game. The graphics and power customisation are an issue as well. The game needs an upgrade and very soon.
Now, it may be that they have been and that MA simply came first. If so then that's good. If not, it's a problem for this game. It faces stiff competition with the impending release of Champions Online.
I know that plenty of people in my SG are going to have a go at CO. A look at the CO forums quite clearly shows that there are a sizeable number of current CoX players who are waiting to play CO.
As it stands the i14 content is nowhere near enough. Here's hoping that i15 is a lot stronger.
So .. If you are asking am I Kidding you?
Not really.
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A strong and valid point. Having limited time, personally I prefer to pay for and get official MMO content - not be given the tools to do it myself and told "There you go - unlimited playability!" - because its not the same thing!.
Now, with Paragon Studios seemingly signing themselves up to a lifetime contract of policing and checking reported arcs, there are going to have less time to concentrate on your previous suggestions that subscribers have been consistently and specifically asking for. 
I see a lot of love/hate going on with mission architect
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A strong and valid point. Having limited time, personally I prefer to pay for and get official MMO content - not be given the tools to do it myself and told "There you go - unlimited playability!" - because its not the same thing!.
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Even if you never actually create a mission arc of your own, you have access to all the ones created by others. That's far greater content than you would get by the devs alone, and in my opinion easily justifies the subscriptions.
The only problem is that the quality of the content differs wildly too. You get everything from primordial sludge you wouldn't play even if you were held at gunpoint to the highly polished arcs even the devs would be impressed at. As a result, the good content is bathed in a sea of waste. It's like trying to find a precious diamond in a landfill.
I think that MA was released to an immature gaming population not quite ready for it. When the majority of players are more interested in farming for cash than enjoying the game the last thing you want to do is give them the tools to do it more effectively...
Characters:
The Heroic Mary Grace (50)
The Mystical Thunderspark (50)
The Candy-loving Little Jenny (50)
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Having limited time, personally I prefer to pay for and get official MMO content - not be given the tools to do it myself and told "There you go - unlimited playability!" - because its not the same thing!.
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Yes, if only they allowed us to play missions other people created. Instead oh woe is us, we're forced to make missions and play nothing but our own.
You suck Nor Cal. You really should have thought things through.
It is premature to start worrying about the fact that the Mission Architect means no more content.
MMOs are trending up towards user generated content and this was just as good a time to introduce the MA as any. All the policing will be done by our Customer Support team, not our developers. Our dev team will still have time to work on more great content.
As for announcing the Paragon Studios, it means that we are more than ever committed to developing City of Heroes and introducing new zones and new content.
The soon has been overused but we will be announcing a lot of very cool stuff in the next couple of months.
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Support-Center f�r deutschsprachige Spieler
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It is premature to start worrying about the fact that the Mission Architect means no more content.
MMOs are trending up towards user generated content and this was just as good a time to introduce the MA as any. All the policing will be done by our Customer Support team, not our developers. Our dev team will still have time to work on more great content.
As for announcing the Paragon Studios, it means that we are more than ever committed to developing City of Heroes and introducing new zones and new content.
The soon has been overused but we will be announcing a lot of very cool stuff in the next couple of months.
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How about a few little hints to make up for the store problems? 
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
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Having limited time, personally I prefer to pay for and get official MMO content - not be given the tools to do it myself and told "There you go - unlimited playability!" - because its not the same thing!.
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Yes, if only they allowed us to play missions other people created. Instead oh woe is us, we're forced to make missions and play nothing but our own.
You suck Nor Cal. You really should have thought things through.
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Emphasis on the word 'official' - usually it means they take small things like story canon into account.
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Emphasis on the word 'official' - usually it means they take small things like story canon into account.
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Oh please. That's a lame excuse.
"The stories might not be canon! MY ENJOYMENT IS CRIPPLED."
You're actively looking for stuff to complain about now.
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Oh please. That's a lame excuse.
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No, personal opinion. Some subscribers do like official PvE content and a continuation of the 'City of' Story over farming missions and Ego-boost arcs. I'm not saying this is 100% of MA, just an awful lot of it at the mo.
But as Avatea has now stated Paragon Studios have no intention of letting up on the official PvE story and Arc-maintanance/policing will be carried out by NCsoft - I can rest assured. 
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No, personal opinion.
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Opinions can still be lame.
You demand new content, get it, yet dismiss the bloody stuff because it isn't canon. It's like a hungry man whinging the bread had some ketchup on it.
With the MA at the moment its pretty hard to find teams for normal mission and police band missions. 
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With the MA at the moment its pretty hard to find teams for normal mission and police band missions.
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True, but I suspect that in a few weeks things will be back to normal and MA is just another way to pass your time in the City.
The M.A.D. Files - Me talking about games, films, games, life, games, internet and games
I'm not good at giving advice, can I interest you in a sarcastic comment?
@Lyrik
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No, personal opinion.
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Opinions can still be lame.
You demand new content, get it, yet dismiss the bloody stuff because it isn't canon. It's like a hungry man whinging the bread had some ketchup on it.
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No that analogy would only work if (insert obscure reason about bread here) ....
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Emphasis on the word 'official' - usually it means they take small things like story canon into account.
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Oh please. That's a lame excuse.
"The stories might not be canon! MY ENJOYMENT IS CRIPPLED."
You're actively looking for stuff to complain about now.
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What an odd response 
There's no 'might' about it. MA arcs/missions are not game canon. If you're not sure what that means, go and look it up.
What I'm looking for is new arcs/missions, contacts, zones and mobs that form part of the game canon - as does ML.
I'm not that interested in wading through a heap of rubbish to find a few decent MA arcs to play, and I'm also not interested in writing my own.
I'm currently playing a few MA arcs written by some SG friends. Now I know that they have spent a lot of time in developing those arcs and making them balanced. The same can't be said for most of the other MA arcs I've tried.
Personally I think that it would have made much more sense to release an issue that contained new official CoX developed arcs/missions/mobs/zones etc before MA was given to us.
Proud member of FOXBASE ALPHA and coalition associates.
Hero 50's - 25
Villain 50's - 1
Technically, eveything in the MA is cannon, as it all happens inside a virtual reality machine...
Making story arcs is much more fun than actually playing the game anyway.
I really should do something about this signature.
I just wish everyone would stop using the bloody ships.
Last night I picked 4 on the trot that were all inside ships.
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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I just wish everyone would stop using the bloody ships.
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Guilty as charged, although just one of my arcs (and just one mission in there) has a ship in it, and only because I like warehouses even less. (I needed a place where lots of stuff could have been plausibly stored.)
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(I needed a place where lots of stuff could have been plausibly stored.)
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Ruined Atlas!
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*Shifty Eyes*
I'm pretty sure you can copy-paste text into the MA, so you might like to write out your entire story in Word, then copy the text itno the right boxes.
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork