Give a Team of MA Authors Boomtown
By
CapnGeist,
Posted on: 2010-03-02 18:05 in Suggestions and Ideas
As long as there are guidelines put in place and they hire exceptional authors, I would fully support this idea. By guidelines, I mean what kind of story they can create. I don't want just any random story in an inappropriate zone. Imagine going to boomtown to hear,
"Help us hero! The knives of Artemis are opening a magic portal that leads to the Devouring Earth dimension! Stop them!"
Give the authors a back story to work with and a level range, and this could be a good idea.
Arc ID: 348998 - Becoming a villain
Arc ID: 373341 - To Save a Hero
Got Inf?
The issue with this is that the AE tools are /not/ the same tools as real missions are built with. The developers have said multiple times that they are NOT at a loss of arc ideas or plans, but what they are at a loss for is time to program these arcs into the game, test them, work out bugs, etc etc.
NPCs: A Single Method to Greatly Expand Bases
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Completely understood and of course, this should be a process that unfolds over time with the MA author team doing most of the heavy lifting using the MA tools to do the proposing, brainstorming, arc writing, then balance testing and so forth prior to providing the developers with as close to a polished, finished product as possible with the limits of the AE interface.|
Originally Posted by CapnGeist
The issue with this is that the AE tools are /not/ the same tools as real missions are built with. The developers have said multiple times that they are NOT at a loss of arc ideas or plans, but what they are at a loss for is time to program these arcs into the game, test them, work out bugs, etc etc.
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At that point, what the devs would have to do, (given that the framework of the zone is already there), is the equivalent of data entry... ie embedding the contacts, setting the doors in he zone for the instance maps, probably reducing the spawn sizes of the zone to less 'hazard zone-like' levels.
If the MA author team does its job successfully, hopefully the time limit problem that you describe could be reduced and done with a minimum of developer staff backup.
No, my point is... the devs have already been asked if they'll ever put an AE made arcs into the game as a whole, and their answer was that the amount of work it would take to rebuild an AE arc into real game arc was so great that the dev effort saved in doing that instead of just making their own arcs was pretty negligible.
NPCs: A Single Method to Greatly Expand Bases
Quote:
Hrm. Guess it was a bad idea then.|
Originally Posted by CapnGeist
No, my point is... the devs have already been asked if they'll ever put an AE made arcs into the game as a whole, and their answer was that the amount of work it would take to rebuild an AE arc into real game arc was so great that the dev effort saved in doing that instead of just making their own arcs was pretty negligible.
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Disregard.
Well it's a good /idea/, it's just, you know... Already been addressed and discarded. **offers cookie**
NPCs: A Single Method to Greatly Expand Bases
Quote:
As I recall, half the point of the MA system was allowing anyone at Paragon Studios easy access to writing arcs. Or at least, that was their standing design goal. I'm sure the MA isn't as robust as the real tools, but I don't think it's too far off either.|
Originally Posted by CapnGeist
The issue with this is that the AE tools are /not/ the same tools as real missions are built with. The developers have said multiple times that they are NOT at a loss of arc ideas or plans, but what they are at a loss for is time to program these arcs into the game, test them, work out bugs, etc etc.
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I honestly don't remember anything about there being "lots of work to convert MA arcs" (and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense anyway), but I'd be far more concerned with elevating some players over others and possible legal tangles.
S_T, what I suggest is that you poke around the MA forums and try to gather up writers to work on some Boomtown arcs. I had some limited success doing the same concerning VEAT arcs.
Never surrender! Never give up!
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Okay, I haven't really thought this out to any large degree, but there are several hazard zones hero-side that seem to see absolutely no use these days for whatever reason. With the developers, (rightly), devoting their time and energy on the future, the overwhelming likelihood will be that these zones will remain dormant if nothing else is done.
My suggestion would be to have Dr. Aeon assemble a team of MA authors and basically 'give' them a zone like Boomtown where there isn't much of a story to it per se and allow that team to basically generate an outline and a proposal on how to revamp Boomtown.
Or if people don't like Boomtown, Perez Park or Crey's Folly or Dark Astoria... any of the zones that basically almost never have anyone in them.
There are stories that can and should be told about these places and I think the idea of a 'hazard zone' has pretty much fallen by the wayside in CoH. That means that these zones could be revitalized to provide alternate leveling paths and so forth.
Like I said, it's not completely thought out and there are, of course, legalisms that would have to be dealt with.
But what do you think of the overall concept?