200kb

Anyone knowcwhen the filesiza is jumping to 200kb?*

I've juat started writing a new arc, and I'd like to use lots of customs in it. I anticipate struggling to whittle it down to fit in the new filesize when it's here.*

Is anyone else planning on making much larger arcs, or expanding any of their current ones to make use of the extra space?

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."

I think that is happening with the GR release and not before.

As for arcs I may revisit, Trademark Infringement for certain. I originally had to trim down the Wannabe group and roll the hero characters into it to get a nice mix (though on occasion you still can get a lower count mix).

Death to Disco! is also close to being maxed out even though it is only two missions. Since that was the case, I only had one minion, Lt. and boss in the Rockers which is an allied group that only appears in battles. After a lot of feedback, I moved all the Rockers to minions because most of the time people only got to see the minion from the group making it kinda blandish. The problem with this is when groups play the arc the Rockers will often lose since they have no boss on their side. Not a big deal, but I will be expanding that group too when I can.

As for my other arcs, it is doubtful I would want to change anything in them, except there are a few spots in my arc's briefing where I could use another 100 characters. I am not sure however if the bump to 200k means more space for text in each section.


WN

Oh I have so many changes I want to make that are just not possible without a jump in available filesize. Drakule could always use new followers, and I'm constantly bumping up against the limit anyhow. I've had to edit down the flavor text of pretty much all of my arcs. I'd love to be able to go back and fill in all of those little system messages and add a couple more clues to some of my arcs.

My Nagan arcs not only could use a few more characters, but also some more details and dialog clues that got left on the cutting room floor.

Plus I'd like to make use of the new options listed in the i17 Overview, finally being able to set a "Return to Exit" objective without faking it all the time with creative boss placement or having an actual "Escort to Glowy" objective.

Are they revisiting the text limits as well? I don't really have a problem with the 3000 souvenir limit or the 1000 briefing / startclue / endclue limits (past that lies Walloftext Country), but the 300char limit on in-mission clues is a bit annoying sometimes.

In an effort to "show, don't tell", I had to put some significant backstory / exposition in my arcs into (de)briefings, since I couldn't have the player 'discover' them during the mission itself due to those limits... the begin/end clues were typically reserved for "here's a dossier on X" or "captive / end boss / super sekrit documents said Y" stuff. In my opinion adding such optional details can add a lot to an arc, but they're better as optional clues instead of shoving them down everyone's throat; here's hoping it'll be possible with the new limits. It could also be that I'm just too wordy.

As for the actual 100k limit, both of my arcs are over 97%... 'The Coldest of Wars' would benefit some from more crazy soviet robots (actually, ALL arcs would benefit some from more crazy soviet robots! ) and I actually hit the cap in 'To Dream of Nothing' by having a ton of details and clues... I had to cut a few of them, which in turn made the plot a bit harder to follow.

(trying to squeeze everything into 100k is a somewhat amusing 'minigame'/challenge... that said, I won't shed any tears for it when we move to 200k!)


-- Z.

#4643 "Blowback" 68.14%
#4829 "Chains of Blood" 80.88%
#126582 "Two Households Alike" 99.87%
#253990 "Why We Fight" 99.14%
#253991 "Splintered Shields" 83.59%
#283197 "Psychophage" 94.87%
#356477 "The Christmas We Get" 43.86%

"The Christmas We Get' and "Splintered Shields" are probably the best arcs I've written to date, with "Two Households Alike" close behind. "Psychophage" is easily the worst, as it was deliberately written to be bad.

I'm not sure if it's even possible to hit the file size limit on text alone with no custom mobs; if you even try you'll hit the "tl;dr" wall first. "Households" could probably be improved by removing some of its custom mobs. None of these arcs could be improved by adding any. Neither will anyone else's arcs, as custom mobs are nothing but window dressing. I can think of a few features that might warrant an increase in the limit but we're not getting any of those and even if we did people would only use the space for more customs anyway. The new limit isn't going to improve any existing arcs and will probably make a lot of them much, much worse.

Only one of my arcs is bumping its head on the ceiling, but the size increase would certainly be more than welcome. One scene in particular was originally planned to have the villainous protagonist being chased by heroes across Paragon City. I felt it was kind of lame that in the canon missions villains can visit Paragon, only for every corner to be filled with Longbow. I doubt I would "retcon" that in though, instead I'll probably just make a remake of the arc if I ever get round to that.

I'd also like to see an increase in the in-mission clues. It doesn't have to be WALLOFTEXT huge like the intro and closing clues, but bigger than the meager scrap we have to deal with now.

Firstly, I have a post-it note stuck to my monitor written just after posting this thread that says "V 'NO!' within 10 p's"

But you've got a point in regards to bloat, Venture. I do play arcs that i think could do with editing some. I'm not sure I agree about the customs, however. For me, one of the best things about the MA is the wide (and sometimes wild) variety of custom mobs (especially named ones) that we can see.

And on the subject of increasing the text limits for clues etc, if they did that then i could reduce the number of Bosses in the final map of The Echo from its slightly (ahem) large current 15.

I think having the villains monologue delivered in ten tranches would be enough.

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."

Might cram even MORE Tubbius customs into "This Costume Contest Sponsored by Tubbius", arc 101933. I think my others are solid.

You know what, I'll post my filesizes too.

#51357 Rise of the Drakule: 85.79%
#84543 Return of the Revenge of the Son of Drakule Part 2: First Blood: 93.05%
#257242 Drakule Armageddon 5: This Time, It's Personal!: 99.98%
#340316 Drakule vs. The Werewolf Bikers From Hell: 99.92%
#177930 Fighting Freedom: 99.39%
#257226 'Tis Nobler in the Mind: 99.76%
#379065 Holding Down the Fort: 65.10%

So, does this mean I win the game?

I came back after a year away overjoyed to have 100kb.

I had had to make some SERIOUS cuts to my arcs to get them to fit. Now, I was able to round out the custom enemies, and, in particular, add in unique characters for named bosses. All three arcs are in the 96-99% range.

With more space? More enemies! In particular, being able to use more unique enemies would mean I wouldn't need to poach existing enemies and have broader level ranges.


Which is one reason I disagree about customs being window dressing:
They add a distinct visual style, which can communicate a lot of interest in this mission, vs. 'ok, these are CoT but green. And they, uh, want the secret to Coke.'

Unique and different powersets.

Broader level range. An all-custom mission means anyone can play. Using specific mobs means you are generally limited to 10-30 level ranges (or even less if you want X mob and Y mob, and many combos of mobs that are simply not possible).


Anyway... I'd love 200k!

Until I17 when you can pick and choose powers more precisely without killing XP, though granted.

More reasonably, customs are reliable from about, oh, 15-54, depending.

Well, supposedly they are improving it, so it remains to be seen how much they improve it.

I'd like, for example, the ability to have ninjitsu and drop Hide, add a few things, and end up about the same. Or have a ranged/melee set and drop the 'throwing knives' from melee.