Johnny Sonata and the %$^%&@# Hitmen
By
Adelie,
Posted on: 2009-10-05 01:56 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Indeed. Not that I use it any more, but when I ran other player's missions and the Dev Choice ones, that grew stale rather quickly. It could use some mixing up to be honest. Even if it's just a random procedure that mixes the Dev Choice order so as not to always have the same Dev Choice at the forefront.
Also, I didn't know there were any Guest Author ones available now. Are there?
Rabbits & Hares:Blue (Mind/Emp Controller)Maroon (Rad/Thermal Corruptor)and one of each AT all at 50
MA Arcs: Apples of Contention - 3184; Zen & Relaxation - 35392; Tears of Leviathan - 121733 | All posts are rated "R" for "R-r-rrrrr, baby!"|Now, and this is very important... do you want a hug? COH Faces @Blue Rabbit
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Originally Posted by Blue Rabbit
Also, I didn't know there were any Guest Author ones available now. Are there?
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No. There are not.
17 Dev's Choice.
0 Guest Authors.
Thelonious Monk
*looks at the random button* I see youuuuuuu
@Damz Find me on the global channel Union Chat. One of the best "chat channels" ingame!
I agree with Scarlet Here. Not sure what to do about it though. Perhaps they could change the default for the MA that you only see the non completed non voted arcs?
Or change it to do a random pick straight off or have some options that allow a random pick straight off. Maybe even remember what you did last (search, random button etc) and do that again.
Tagging some new Dev's Choices could be a start, too... Any time I go look at that list and see the exact same options that were there months ago, it kind of kills my enthusiasm.
Having Vengeance and Fallout slotted for recharge means never having to say you're sorry.
Wow, front page? Seriously?
I never look at the front page of ANYTHING.... it's mostly just blatant advertisement for the most mundane mindless crap.
Why ANYONE would look at the front page of something, let alone want to be ON the front page is beyond me.
lrn2FILTER
I completely agree. There are other, newer, often better arcs out there. Is there any way to set up some kind of rotation?
/Offtopic:
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I giggled.
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Originally Posted by Scarlet Shocker
...the same old turgid missions on the front page...
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I'm not the droid I'm looking for.
MA Arc ID 8121: Rapp'Mas'Ta's War. The Rikti are trying to incorporate sonic effects into their weapons? THAT can't be good. Maybe we should ask them to stop.
Just use the filter
I've played through all the Dev Choice arcs, and loads more - so when I go to play an arc, I set the search for everything except the ones I've voted on - that gets me a first page of the highest rated ones that I've not played yet.
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
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People want to be on the front page because the point of publishing your arc is to have people play it. Most people take the path of least resistance and just click what's right in front of their faces, rather than go to the effort of trying to sift through pages and pages of arcs looking for something that might appeal to them. So if your arc isn't on the first few pages, people won't play it. |
Originally Posted by Westley
Wow, front page? Seriously?
I never look at the front page of ANYTHING.... it's mostly just blatant advertisement for the most mundane mindless crap. Why ANYONE would look at the front page of something, let alone want to be ON the front page is beyond me. lrn2FILTER |
This is why a four-star rating, even though it still means a decent, solid arc, pretty much guarantees you won't get any random plays ever, since it pushes your arc to page 300 or something, behind everyone with a single 5-star rating, where only a handful of people will ever bother to look at it.
By the way, I completely agree that Dev's Choice needs to stop hogging the entire front page. Also there are many arcs that need to be at least considered for Dev's Choice, and a few that should be made Dev's Choice yesterday.
Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
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Really? I have two arcs out there that I published and I don't care if anyone plays them. I made them for me because I enjoy them.
| People want to be on the front page because the point of publishing your arc is to have people play it. |
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*Sigh*|
Originally Posted by Westley
Really? I have two arcs out there that I published and I don't care if anyone plays them. I made them for me because I enjoy them.
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Part of the point of publishing arcs is to have people play them.
Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
If people want to play your arcs, they WILL find them. If they are just happy running around playing whatever's in front of their faces.... do you REALLY want those kind of dimwits playing your arcs?
Or would you rather have people with enough mental competence to actually use the FILTER features playing your arcs?
Posts like this are the main reason why nobody likes me.
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Originally Posted by Westley
If people want to play your arcs, they WILL find them. If they are just happy running around playing whatever's in front of their faces.... do you REALLY want those kind of dimwits playing your arcs?
Or would you rather have people with enough mental competence to actually use the FILTER features playing your arcs? Posts like this are the main reason why nobody likes me. |
Well in a way your right, if you make an arc that is specified in a certain way to appeal to a certain target audience then yes you do want people who will appreciate it to play it rather than just players using it as an xp gain without taking the content into consideration *breaths* [that was long!].
The only time lately i use the MA is to find tribute arcs to some of my favourite past times, using the filter im able to almost guarantee that the missions left on the screen will be the ones i'll enjoy.
Regarding dev choices, i think that only one of them can be considered amongst the better ones. A lot of them have too many flaws within them to be considered a well thought out arc [which imo is what a dev choice arc should be].
- Does the difficulty scale correctly when going from solo > teamed and vice versa?
@Damz Find me on the global channel Union Chat. One of the best "chat channels" ingame!
quick solution:
have the game remember your search settings, so when you log in you see whatever was on the screen when you logged out.
The Nethergoat Archive: all my memories, all my characters, all my thoughts on CoH...eventually.
My City Was Gone
I agree possibly they could make a seperate page for Devs choice and could review some more.
Completely agree with the OP. Devs Choice needs to be on some kind of a rotation, and choices need to be made more often.
"The Hamidon is a what what of what?" - Brian the mission guy.
Agreed. The option to have your last search saved for when you next log in would be a great feature to add to the MA. Yes, there need to be some new Dev's Choice awards handed out to arcs too.
K5K - The Killbot 5000
A Spanner In The Works Part One, ArcID: 336662, A Spanner In The Works Part Two, ArcID: 336665, Enter Japes, ArcID: 96001
In The Darkness Creeping, ArcID: 347709, When Dimensions Collide, ArcID: 412416.
Perhaps once the players finish reporting the 800 pages or so worth of farm missions, then the Devs have a decent chance of finding new missions to nominate.
My money's on the fact that they're all too busy on GR material right now.
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Agreed. My search settings are 4 stars, and then I normally go down a handful of pages before I start trying things.|
Originally Posted by Nethergoat
quick solution:
have the game remember your search settings, so when you log in you see whatever was on the screen when you logged out. |
--NT
They all laughed at me when I said I wanted to be a comedian.
But I showed them, and nobody's laughing at me now!
If I became a red name, I would be all "and what would you mere mortals like to entertain me with today, mu hu ha ha ha!" ~Arcanaville
People have been complaining about this since I13 beta. I am disappointed to hear that it hasn't been changed yet. I think the list should be random by default until you put in some search terms. Or the first page could always show the most recent additions. Anything to keep it moving and looking lively.
Avatar: "Cheeky Jack O Lantern" by dimarie
Yeah, my normal searches for random arcs goes "Four Stars, 15-100 votes"
That's where the best stuff is.
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That's assuming people know me from Adam and believe I make good stories that they want to play. They don't. Despite what my over-inflated ego might suggest, no-one in-game knows who I am, so the only people who WANT to play my arcs are the people I directly ASK to play my arcs. When they are buried so deep you have a better chance of finding the Arc of the Covenant, that's really all it comes down to. Ratings matter very little in a sea of arcs with identical ratings, name recognition means very little if you're not one of the few names most people recognise (and I'm not) arcs with the same tags are a time a dozen.|
Originally Posted by Westley
If people want to play your arcs, they WILL find them. If they are just happy running around playing whatever's in front of their faces.... do you REALLY want those kind of dimwits playing your arcs?
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I have an arc which has had 6 playthroughs over as many months, one of which is mine and the rest of which belong to people I've asked to review it, all to reactions that range from good to excellent. The point of making an arc is to have people play it, and experience has convinced me that if I want to get people to play mine, I have to advertise. I don't want to advertise, so I doubt I'm going to make another arc at all. There's no point if they will never get played.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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Personally I enjoy seeing players experience in react to the stuff I make so I don't care if the only people who see my stuff are on the pickup groups I lead through them (which I do a lot).
Ok the MA finally gets to work right. It enables player created content that people might actually be interested in playing as opposed to endless farm after farm.
Yet the same mission heads up the list. Every time you log in, go to the MA that one mission is the first thing to hit you between the eyes. Ad nauseum
It's not even a particularly good mission, especially compared to some of the stuff that's out there, but it's been in the list longer than forever and got a Dev's Choice because it was first, not necessarily because it was quality.
(I should point out I don't have any particular axe to grind with the author @Ground Pounder here, so I'm not questioning his/her ability as a player or as an author.)
But that mission, alongside "Welcome to Architect Entertainment", "Saul Rubenstein's Discount Task Force" and "The Do-It-Yourself Laser Moonbase Project" amongst others all hog the front page - and like a web page that never changes or evolves, stops being a tool for driving traffic, but rather gives an impression of staleness and a lack of imagination.
That's totally the impression the MA should not be giving. Instead it should be inspiring players to play and develop their own arcs. But why bother when you're still going to see the same old turgid missions on the front page? Are they the only Dev's choices available? No, of course not. There's dozens (although finding Dev's choice that do NOT have the mission in question on the top of the page seems tricky) and by now there should be hundreds.
What about Guest Authors? Why do they not make it to the front page, not indeed do Hall of Fame? Nope, they are buried unless you search for them but the same old Johnny hogs the front page. The MA should be literally screaming at you "You really need to be playing this excellent mission. The guys who make this game think it's great and we think you will too!" Instead we get 6 missions that we've played already and are very unlikely to play again in a hurry.
You might like to argue that with the search facility, players can look for missions they might enjoy. Sure that's very true, but the search isn't especially intuitive, and it also takes time, and then there's the biggest question: What to search for? Not always the easiest question to answer. But if I have a spare 45 minutes with a few mates in MA I don't necessarily want to spend time searching. I'd like to see something fresh and I will sample it, rather like a buffet. The Dev created content is the full sit-down banquet, the MA is the smorgasboard.
It's not that difficult to fix either. As I'm writing this I can only find 17 Dev's Choice missions. So, the Dev's aren't choosing, which seems odd, given this is such a flagship tool for Paragon Studios. So Dev's, extract digit please and choose more missions for your accolades and give the MA front page some much needed TLC!
Thelonious Monk