So is there a plan, or working as intended?

Is the current MA the final proof? Or is it still on the schedule for reworking, because the current is flailing miserably. I totally understand why change was needed, I too was pretty tired of only getting on teams that ran one of three same missions, but the changes have reduced the ae to being completely ignored. Its a balance issue that obviously is out of whack.

For one, the incentive is no longer there. You are punished for being creative, and frankly the creator is not very creative. How about giving players more control over mob placement, makeup, and just content. Its cool that I can make my ambushing mob say something, but when the next ambush says the exact same thing its pretty lame. Also, how about some conversations between members of a mob, like in the real levels. How about transfers between mission levels? Like being in an outdoor map and having to find the entrance to the sewer/right building. Getting interactive clues from mobs (like finding keys in the lgsf.)

Now to the rewards, or lack thereof. AE tickets went from being ridiculously broken to being ridiculously broken. I have started writing down ae arcs that merely give any measurable amount of tickets at all, since most missions are awarding my 50's with maybe 100-200 tickets a go. Im not talking about x0+0's either. The stories arent creative enough for me to run it on my toons knowing I gain nothing from it, sorry. Really I would say the only thing ae is used for is rare salvage buys, because everything else is priced too high for the low return from missions.

It is a balance issue just like everything else in the game, and currently I would say there is no balance between regular and ae missions. So is i14 and all the time it took to implement everything going to go to waste? It seems stupid to me to implement the MA and call it complete goods, never looking to upgrade it again. That was what made it so exciting, the fact that its got so much potential.

Seriously, the only thing more dead than ae in this game is its ghost town pvp zones...maybe the IOP vaults.

edit; basically Im trying to get across that the game content and ae can both exist and flourish at the same time, there doesnt always have to be an ugly stepdaughter...

They just added a specific developer to be in charge of the Mission Architect back in what, September?

No, this isn't the "final version" of the Mission Architect. They've already stated a few of the changes that they'll be making to it alongside the release of Going Rogue (double the storage size! 200K instead of 100K, meaning at the very least that you can include several more custom NPCs!) and stated that there are plans to upgrade the system reaching pretty much as far as they've got planned for future issues currently, with even more ideas of things they'd like to do "eventually" on top of that.

And yes, the Architect Entertainment building was absolutely 100% intended to give players an alternate levelling method to developer content, but it was never once said that the two were supposed to be equivalent. Custom NPCs are always going to be more dangerous than a similar dev-created NPC unless they break down and let us customize their exact strengths and weaknesses... which will then of course lead to more exploitation and further reduction of rewards to counterbalance the repeat onset of farmers.

Not that I'm saying this to you Rabid, but just in general... I'm really sick of people complaining about the state of the Mission Architect and saying it's the developers' faults when players so willfully abused what they were given at the start.

Anyway, I certainly wouldn't say that player-created content is the "ugly stepdaughter" these days. For the year between the launch of Issue 12 and Issue 14, and even up until Issue 16, the Mission Architect has been getting the lion's share of the developers' attention. They may have had to leave her for a while in a state where she's without her makeup, but it's borderline foolish to assume that they're not going to gussy her up a little after the upcoming expansion has gotten its kinks worked out.

(Okay, I'm done with the girly metaphors. And now my head kinda hurts. )

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nethergoat it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!

The devs (or a dev, not sure) spelled it out something like this:

"we're making a quick fix for the time being until we can put in the time to code up a real solution." (note - not actual quote)

So be patient, things will hopefully improve.

And BTW - the "ugly stepdaughter" syndrome isn't warrented here as much as some players seem to think so; perceptions can be wrong. Some people still think stalkers are a terrible AT, for example.

Yeah, I distinctly recall... um... Well I'm certain we can all remember... oh, wait... Ok, I give up. Which quick fixes have lingered and become "working as intendeds"?

Is this the same AE I'm currently using to make billions of influence and hundreds of levels in? It hardly sounds like the same thing as what the OP is describing.

[QUOTE=Chad Gulzow-Man;2518341]

Not that I'm saying this to you Rabid, but just in general... I'm really sick of people complaining about the state of the Mission Architect and saying it's the developers' faults when players so willfully abused what they were given at the start.
QUOTE]

This is the only part I take issue with. It WAS INDEED the developer's fault for the whole way the AE situation went about. However, more likely they ran out of time to do the things that SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE IN CLOSED Beta to make sure exploitation wasn't even possible in the first place.

Had the system come out CORRECTLY there would have been nothing to abuse. Players using systems in ways not intended is something they should have anticipated . . . and actually there was nothing to aniticpate.

Their CLOSED BETA TESTERS told them so!

/end rant.

Almost like someone giving you pie then yelling at them cause it hasn’t got the favorite crust that you like. They’re working on the crust but hey…free pie!

I'll get the Better Business Bureau on line two for you sir.

Just noticed that people are farming the AE like the I16 nerf never happened (but I only noticed this on Freedom). What changed lately?

It feel like May again, Atlas Park is full of "lvl 50 stone tank LF AE" etc

Mission creators have found a way to limit the number of minions on a map and comply with the new restrictions for max XP gain...