MA: I weep metaphorical tears of despair
By
3dent,
Posted on: 2009-04-10 24:12 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Sorry to hear that you're ill 
I was just saying that you could have done worse, i.e, used the much overused Ruined Atlas map, which has no mini-map, and is just plain horrid 
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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.
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I would have said the opposite; if Champions Online comes out as scheduled, which is summer-ish, there'll probably only be time for one more CoX Issue before (maybe at near enough the same time, to steal their thunder) the CO release.
An arc/missions/etc... release now, with MA put off until CO's out, would mean CoX was matching CO with a "no new content now, perhaps some later when players get chance" Issue...not a good tactic.
As it is when CO comes out MA will have been live long enough for there to be a decent body of player-built content to make a fuss of, and CO's release can be met with the dev-built content. Looks like a much safer option to me.
SO far I have only really played one arc properly - Sauls Discount Task Force. It was great fun and well worth a go if you havent already.
As for creation - I spent an hour on my own arc last night and got one whole mission of it built. Then today I realised something I could do better to use the map I wanted and so tonight will spend another hour tweaking - and maybe even get onto the 2nd mission.
Personally I feel the MA could be great for the game and for some of the more creative people among us to show their skills, plus giving more interesting content to play.
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I'm the same I'm working slowly through my planned arc trying to iron as many bugs out as i can tho i also have mission I've just thrown together largely as a experimental muck about
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I just wish everyone would stop using the bloody ships.
Last night I picked 4 on the trot that were all inside ships.
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It would be very difficult to tell a story about pirates in the caribbean without at least one mission set on a ship.
I really should do something about this signature.
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I just wish everyone would stop using the bloody ships.
Last night I picked 4 on the trot that were all inside ships.
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It would be very difficult to tell a story about pirates in the caribbean without at least one mission set on a ship.
[/ QUOTE ]You could have them set in a tech lab or university instead.
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I just wish everyone would stop using the bloody ships.
Last night I picked 4 on the trot that were all inside ships.
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It would be very difficult to tell a story about pirates in the caribbean without at least one mission set on a ship.
[/ QUOTE ]You could have them set in a tech lab or university instead.
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...or a warehouse, copying DVDs...
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I just wish everyone would stop using the bloody ships.
Last night I picked 4 on the trot that were all inside ships.
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It would be very difficult to tell a story about pirates in the caribbean without at least one mission set on a ship.
[/ QUOTE ]You could have them set in a tech lab or university instead.
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Or the Mercy pier section
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
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I just wish everyone would stop using the bloody ships.
Last night I picked 4 on the trot that were all inside ships.
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It would be very difficult to tell a story about pirates in the caribbean without at least one mission set on a ship.
[/ QUOTE ]You could have them set in a tech lab or university instead.
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Or the Mercy pier section
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Or an office acting as Johnny Depp's Agent's offices.
By my mohawk shall ye know me!
my toons
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I just wish everyone would stop using the bloody ships.
Last night I picked 4 on the trot that were all inside ships.
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It would be very difficult to tell a story about pirates in the caribbean without at least one mission set on a ship.
[/ QUOTE ]You could have them set in a tech lab or university instead.
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Or the Mercy pier section
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Or an office acting as Johnny Depp's Agent's offices.
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Or his own person bank vault where he stores his earnings
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
Still pirates and ship somehow seem connected. Not sure why. So use the maps if the story commands it. Even if not everybody will like that part of the arc.
That said. I seriously hate every map where there is no proper mapping. Like the Ruined Atlas or the Eden trial maps. Finding something in one of those maps is a nightmare.
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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. 
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That's a flawed piece of logic. Paragon Studios does game development. Monitoring of the games is done by NCsoft, using people employed specifically as CS staff. Architect doesn't change any of that. They're still developers, and they'll continue developing.
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If it's so easy to do .. why hasn't it already happened?
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Am I missing the bit where this came out quickly? Because they've essentially been making a very big (And nifty) development tool and giving it to us as content.
Which is both sneaky and awesome at the same time.
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He's not saying that MA was easy to get out to us. He's saying that this demonstrates how easy it is to create missions/arcs/ new enemies to fight etc. He's asking the extremely valid question that if the dev tools are even more powerful, why have they never bothered to raise the bar in terms of mission content?
Because it's quite clear that it would be very simple to have done so.
Especially if they had ever added tools to their own MA systems. (boobytraps perhaps- that kind of thing.)
I see now more clearly than ever what they COULD have done but just have never bothered to do.
So for me personally, while I enjoy MA (although I have a prob from when I copied my arc from test to live) I have come away thinking that it's a real pity they ever thought it was necessary to give us this particular feature in the first place.
Sorry, but in the overall picture, this just highlights their shortcomings as far as i'm concerned.
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You should read up on interviews etc from Joe Morrissey with regards the Mission Architect. MA is far more powerful and usable than what the devs had previously. Before MA, they had Excel spreadsheets.
MA started out as Joe's personal project to get the dev team a more powerful and specific tool. That then grew into Mission Architect.
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That's a flawed piece of logic. Paragon Studios does game development. Monitoring of the games is done by NCsoft, using people employed specifically as CS staff. Architect doesn't change any of that. They're still developers, and they'll continue developing.
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Thats good to hear, however, continued tweaking of architect (much like pvp) is not NCsoft's workload but the Dev's,... like I said, more time invested.
Out of interest... Is it NCsoft Europe or NCsoft stateside that is doing the policing?, or are you working together on it. I just wondered considering the shared EU/US global server for the arcs.
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Technically, eveything in the MA is cannon, as it all happens inside a virtual reality machine...
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I would disagree.
Nothing in MA is game canon - except inside the writers head.
The fact that is set within a virtual reality environment surely precludes anything in MA from being game canon?
I am open to a counter argument on this though. One way that I think may work is if the devs took a player arc and placed it inside the CoX reality - thus making it part of the game and canon.
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Hero 50's - 25
Villain 50's - 1
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Technically, eveything in the MA is cannon, as it all happens inside a virtual reality machine...
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I would disagree.
Nothing in MA is game canon - except inside the writers head.
The fact that is set within a virtual reality environment surely precludes anything in MA from being game canon?
I am open to a counter argument on this though. One way that I think may work is if the devs took a player arc and placed it inside the CoX reality - thus making it part of the game and canon.
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That depends on what you constitute as canon. With respects to all MA missions are actually just games set inside a virtual reality entertainment system, a holodeck if you prefer, then yes they're canon. With respect to the actual stories themselves, no... they're not canon.
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
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I would disagree.
Nothing in MA is game canon - except inside the writers head.
The fact that is set within a virtual reality environment surely precludes anything in MA from being game canon?
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Canon says that anything that happens inside MA is in a Virtual Reality, therefore it never really happened.
If it never really happened, it can never contradict canon.
If it can't contradict canon, it must be canon.
Ergo eveything in the MA is canon.
I really should do something about this signature.
I hear a wizard did it.
@Rooks
"You should come inside the box... Then you'll know what I mean."
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I would disagree.
Nothing in MA is game canon - except inside the writers head.
The fact that is set within a virtual reality environment surely precludes anything in MA from being game canon?
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Canon says that anything that happens inside MA is in a Virtual Reality, therefore it never really happened.
If it never really happened, it can never contradict canon.
If it can't contradict canon, it must be canon.
Ergo eveything in the MA is canon.
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I'm now weeping metaphorical tears of despair at the 'I weep metaphorical tears of despair' thread.
I haven't been this confused since World of world of Warcraft came out.
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There's no 'might' about it. was given to us.
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Tough. Mother's argument is still petty - the demand is for new content, gets it, yet starts whinging because it isn't developer made.
That's the only distinction that people are getting hooked on, and it's hilariously weak. Or would UBER L33T ARC 12 really be different simply because War Witch put her name on it, instead of @W4R W1TCH? Oh, and the developers have stated well written arcs can make their way into the canon. So bang goes that side of the coin.
/edit - Hell, actually, I'd damn well put money on the argument going from "they're not canon" to "they're just the same old things " if the MA arcs had been published by developers. Nor Cal wouldn't be able to win, they really wouldn't.
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No that analogy would only work if (insert obscure reason about bread here) ....
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I'm sorry, I can't see your post past this shattered spleen I have.
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There's no 'might' about it. was given to us.
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Tough. Mother's argument is still petty - the demand is for new content, gets it, yet starts whinging because it isn't developer made.
That's the only distinction that people are getting hooked on, and it's hilariously weak. Or would UBER L33T ARC 12 really be different simply because War Witch put her name on it, instead of @W4R W1TCH? Oh, and the developers have stated well written arcs can make their way into the canon. So bang goes that side of the coin.
/edit - Hell, actually, I'd damn well put money on the argument going from "they're not canon" to "they're just the same old things " if the MA arcs had been published by developers. Nor Cal wouldn't be able to win, they really wouldn't.
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No that analogy would only work if (insert obscure reason about bread here) ....
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I'm sorry, I can't see your post past this shattered spleen I have.
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[censored] you, you unfunny [censored].
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[censored] you, you unfunny [censored].
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Hey, s'all cool pal, I'm not Islamic. No need to fly off into generic MAN RAGE RAWR with me.
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[censored] you, you unfunny [censored].
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Hey, s'all cool pal, I'm not Islamic. No need to fly off into generic MAN RAGE RAWR with me.
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No your not islamic, your a [censored].
And get your facts right, the pic of the fella with the scate board is not me.
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Canon says that anything that happens inside MA is in a Virtual Reality, therefore it never really happened.
If it never really happened, it can never contradict canon.
If it can't contradict canon, it must be canon.
Ergo eveything in the MA is canon.
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I love this guy...
Anyway, I really hope the overwhelming farming fad dies down as it was suggested it might. There's almost no such thing as "normal" teams and it's increasingly difficult to find members to join you on storyarcs which aren't farming related.
I wonder if things are any different on Defiant...?
Characters:
The Heroic Mary Grace (50)
The Mystical Thunderspark (50)
The Candy-loving Little Jenny (50)
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[censored] you, you unfunny [censored].
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No your not islamic, your a [censored].
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What? A chair? A duck? A football player? An attractive cross-dresser? What man, you must finish your sentence! You can do it, Londoner! Just believe in yourself!
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And get your facts right, the pic of the fella with the scate board is not me.
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Hey, I never said it was you. I just said you don't have to go into your faux-scary act because I'M NOT THE ENEMY MAN. But seriously, I'm here all week.
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Ruined Atlas!
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*Shifty Eyes*
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Ok, I'ts hard to get irony in a foreign language while being sick (just a common cold)... What do you mean?