New Dev Choices?

The difference between the Dev's Choice debacle versus the other stuff (and what in heck was the Batcat/catbat thing?) is that, with the proper attention and good technical decision-making, the powers-that-be could have a content bonanza with the MA that could - hypothetically - keep this ship sailing forever.

I think they should...

1 - (and I'm sorry to make this suggestion for your sake, Sumericon) scrap all the current Dev's Choices for now,
2 - develop a set of internal guidelines regarding what qualifies
3 - post the majority of these where everyone can see them - here and in-game in the help section
4 - assign an *employee* with good story-oriented skills as well as technical savvy to review arcs to triage and make recommendations to assigned devs with similar skills,
5 - actually make contact with arc creators that have arcs under consideration (with the first batch priority going to the original Dev's Choice recipients out of fairness) with recommended corrections that will bring the arc to specs (if necessary)
6 - post a first batch of about a dozen *New* Dev's Choices.
7 - post at least two new Dev's Choices a month
8 - post ten to twelve new Dev's Choices with each issue.

That's just me, but if they did something like this, and everyone knew they were serious, I think it would be a boon to us, them, and the game.

Of course they'll still need to address the current XP problems and such, but with the attention they give to PvP, I don't see where that *should* be a problem.

I agree broadly with your suggestions, D, but i'd limit it to 1 new DC every month, or even every 2 months if necessary. I wouldnt want 'no time' to be an excuse. And 'd also leave all current DC arcs as is. I lose nothing by Sumericon et al having their DCs. They could amend their guidelines with 'from now on, all DC eligible arcs must be...' abd i'd be happy to let the early ones stand. Harryhausen sfx aren't jurassik park, but i wouldn't take his Oscar away.
I'd also be happy with a much smaller nber of DCs with every issue. 3 would be plenty. For me, clearly promised and delivered X is what i want. The size of X is secondary. It can be enlarged later perhaps, when the 'new' DC system is up and working.

Eco

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

And the Batcat/Catbat Affair was revealed as a Fake Forum Cartel hoax sometime after it was first discussed. I'm pretty sure we never had a redname comment on the forums about it, and i doubt you'd get an FC member to admit to being involved now.

Eco

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

New issue release is a bad time to mark a bunch of arcs as Dev's Choice, since authors may want to take advantage of new features, or edit their arcs to work around new limitations. Plus the devs are extra busy, and the promotion of new Dev's Choice arcs would be overridden by whatever New Shiny everyone has spent the last month getting excited about.

A good time for new DC arcs would be in that between-issue slump, when people aren't playing as much and everyone is getting bored with the last shiny. Give them something "new" to keep them entertained. And yes, I have a very low estimation of the average gamer's attention span, and no, I don't exclude myself.

Ewa - excellent idea.

WN - LMAO

Eco.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

MrCaptainman, of course it is better for the Dev's to work on new issues/content then going through 100000+ arcs. The problem is that they anounced they would do so. Thus resulting in another half finished unsupported product like they have done before and will do in the future.

We get hyped up on a new fun sounding idea, a lot of effort is put into making that idea workable until they gt another crazy funsounding idea. It feels to me as if I am eating a cake that has been lovingly made, put into the oven, but gets no further then being halfbaked.

This issue didn't add a single scrap of content. Last issue added two TFs for high-level players, that aren't very popular because the final encounter is tedious. The issue before that didn't add a single scrap of content. The issue before that, a few short arcs, ripping villains off again, and for heroes being limited to a level range where we already have lots of content that doesn't include multiple boss ambushes, and the Cimeroran arcs....what were those about again?

Devs' Choice is a pretty quick way to get some "new" officially-sanctioned content into the game on a regular basis, much of which is frankly far better than the lackluster offerings we've been getting from the devs for the last few issues.

Maybe part of the problem is no one is marking their arcs as Final. According to the help on that part of the interface, only arcs marked Final will be considered for Dev's Choice, but that is the only place it is mentioned. I know I haven't marked any mine that way, even the one with 280+ runs and 4 stars. And I know about that requirement.

The problem is, the Mission Editor keeps being changed so much, you can't really MAKE your arc final at the moment... Right now I've not had my own arc (recommended a few times for Devs Choice) played by anyone but myself in over 2 months, but I desperately need feedback on the custom mobs in particular because the last changes made them absolute monsters for my own alts at the lowest end of the spawn (and the AV, reduced to an EB with only 4 powers can still 1 shot my L30, sigh).
Likewise I've spent many hours trying to fix all the bugs that I've seen, but I have no idea if they occur just for me, or if there's a solution... For instance, one of the story jokes isn't as obvious because one Mastermind friendly NPC won't spawn his robots on Live, although he will on Test; but it's incredibly slow to work out all the permeations and test work arounds, because the boards are largely dead except for a thread on farming, no one has spoken on the Union MA channel (which I mod) for I've no idea how long, and few others are making an effort on genuine arcs and might have come across the issues themselves and have suggestions to make.
Oh, I've tweaked the text again and again to make it ever more crammed full of terrible puns, but as the actual mechanics stand now, I wouldn't WANT the mission to get locked down as an unchangeable DC... and you know, I rather suspect the Devs know this too. I'm wondering if they realize the MA is still in need of some serious tweaking, and so will any arcs made under it yet, before they can be comfortably immortalized.

I have to agree with the comments made though that a higher standard of judging should be applied if they ever do start making choices again; The MA is largely a disaster now in my personal opinion, and what it needs is to REALLY wow people with the best of the very best to get them interested in the actual stories it tells now. To be honest, removing all the Dev Choices, and perhaps re-awarding to only the absolute creme de la creme, in perhaps certain categories (Challenge, Lore, Comedy etc now we can tag them as such) would do much to remove the stigma that's become attached to it since launch... it's mostly seen as an exercise in badly spelt TvTroping and experience maxi-mining alas.

That might sound elitist I know, but I'm not afraid to say that perhaps we need a little of that now; because I suspect we've all rather had enough of second rate, incomplete and incompletable content. Knock our socks off next time, please.

As holder of a Dev's Choice arc (and with a lot of very positive feedback), I have to agree with a lot of the sentiment here. I built my arc with Dev's Choice in mind, and I got that prestige, and I am very happy.... but I didn't want Dev's Choice so that it could just be me and a few others who happened to get DC'd in beta. It's pretty lame. There are plenty of other arcs out there deserving of it.

I do not believe DC should be taken away, but I do think that more need to be added with some consistency.

Likewise, I think honored arcs (DC and HoF) should be on a separate tab, instead of above the other non-honored arcs.

I sincerely hope that all the honorable mentions in this current MA contest will be awarded DC status.