WARNING: Post I17 Undocumented Issues that may effect your arcs

My arc "A Hero in Need...is a Friend Indeed!" #375018 has happily been very well received since I first published it on 2/11. Since that time it had gotten 81 plays of which I would estimate that 65-70 were 5 stars and the rest were 4 stars. To my knowledge it hasn't gotten anything less than a 4. The day I17 was published it got 2 3 star ratings and no feedback. I assumed that it was due and that you can't please everyone so it was bound to happen. This morning I had 2 more plays a 1 or 2 star and a 3 star. Red flag alert! I play through the arc all is fine until I hit the last mission and this:



Ugh! One of my custom characters has become invalid!

I exit the mission and pull up the arc in editor to see:



The really bad part you can't tell from this screen shot is that besides the one invalid custom character, there are two other issues.

1) The big secret boss in the last mission (and another boss) that were set to not autospawn have had that removed. This means mulit-copies of the boss could have been appearing in the missions.

2) The custom group that was made up of dev created recolored/named characters and full custom characters has had all of the dev created characters removed from it.

Though the dev made recolors were still appearing in the mission, I know if I edit the group they will be gone. So I replay the arc, took sceenies of all of them and copy all their bios.

I then edited the group and with the help of the MA Arc Finder channel was able to determine that characters with shields are the ones coming up invalid. I'm not sure if it is all characters with shields or only certain shields. Once the character's shield was redone (it had turned solid black) and went about recreating every recolor I had done. I saved it, republished the arc and did another play through to confirm all was well again.

So if you have either custom characters with shields or recolored/renamed dev created characters in a custom group, check your arc asap.


WN

I have a boss with a Tech Broadsword and Tech Shield, she is not affected.
Gonna have to check the BS/Shield ally in another arc.

A little update.

I realized that another of my arcs, Trademark Infringement, had a custom with a shield (named American Shield no less!). I checked the arc and he was still there. So, I am guessing now that it is only certain shield types or maybe shields combined with something else. FYI - The Invalid character in my other arc was War Mace/Shield.

I went through all of my arcs in editor and found two of them with the same error. The error was created in both cases by the use of /scale html tag.

This error did not seem to have an effect on the arc's playability, but they will need to be fixed before you are able to make any changes to an arc with this error.

WN

I actually did play this, but thought that creature was supposed to be there (at least, I thought it was funny). That might explain why I've been getting low rates on my dev's choice arc.

While putting together a new arc, I can't make escort betrayal work properly. No matter what I try, I can't get the escort to reach the objective and start proper betrayal behavior (switching alignment and attacking). Anyone know if I'm just doing something wrong, or if this is a new bug?

*headdesk* I know they could screw up the MA a bit more, but really... it's like we go one step forward and nine steps back. Or just fall over completely.

By the way, I don't know if you're taking this into account, but there are some hairstyles (the buns from the Martial Arts booster pack) which are now invalid. I believe I saw somewhere that the MA was affected and forcing invalid status due to them.

Update: If you have text scale set to 0.8, it will register as out of the valid range (Seems like someone replaced a >= with a >). This apparently applies to Dev's Choice as well, because I just checked Astoria in D Minor and it gives me that error.

Not only shields but also left-handed pistols seem to be problematic. My Tubbius Regalis character is a thugs/devices mastermind character; if his left hand pistol is set to anything BUT Legacy Semi-Auto, it doesn't show the pistol in his hand, and it registers as invalid.

Just a heads up.

I appreciate the heads up. Found a lot of stuff that needed fixing in my "Amazon-Avatars" arc, thanks to customs using shields. It had lots of invalid junk in there.

Unfortunately, getting a good look in that arc to fix the bugs has me seeing all the changes I should make post-Issue 17. Got some work ahead of me.

Thanks again!

Hmm, my arc has a DM/shields ally (dark shield), and I created a Dual Pistols boss for it, and they both seem fine. Of course I did tweak both critters soon after the release of i17, but I didn't get any error messages while editing. Didn't actually notice if the left-hand pistol (one of the new ones, definitely not legacy semi-auto) appeared in his hand properly, the map was dark and I was busy fighting, but he was valid.

I don't have any Shields with one of my custom groups but I'm told they are invalid nonetheless.

Edit, found the Invalid Character, a Thugs/Poison MM. The Left pistol appears to be borked.

I've been experiencing and getting reports of a few bugs that my new arc, "A Daughter's Path of Thorns" is encountering. As you know from the other thread, these bugs were not present as the arc was tested thoroughly by myself and was run through by two reviewers from this forum as well as a half dozen of my friends on the server.

The new feature to require players to leave the mission through the exit instead of leaving it normally is not included properly in timed missions. Once the other objectives are completed, it states mission completed, the clock stops and is removed but then tells players to find the mission exit. I was hoping that it was just one more thing to do before the clock ran out. I've removed the new feature as it seems to just be a minor annoyance for the 2nd 3rd & 5th missions.

The huge problem is in my last mission though. The Advanced Mission Objective to protect defendable objects is not working properly AT ALL. Although the objects can be defended by eliminating the spawns that are present when you encounter the object, the subsequent ambush which used to be practically on top of you now takes a very long time to happen even after players are given notice that the object is now safe. Secondly, upon triggering the encounter for the enemies to start acting upon the defendable object, ie. destroying it, the total number of objects to be defended in the nav window increases by one and secondly, once the encounter is finished, the number doesn't decrease from the initial total of defendable objects. So, the player doesn't know how many objects still need to be defended and secondly, when the last defendable object objective has been completed, it doesn't trigger a mission complete. Players have to either abandon or quit the storyarc altogether losing out on a crucial clue, in this case, of the initation arc to get their promotion within the SG.

Finally, I've noticed that there are fewer spawns overall in the missions. I was wondering if anyone else had noticed this too?

I know Technical issues like Wentworths/Blackmarket and the like, have more priority but issues like this makes it difficult for authors to trust their content is still playable after an issue release. I'm still advertising the arc as part of my recruitment drive but I'm giving them the heads up that the last mission is bugged and they're getting the promotion anyway. Still, it does take away from the enjoyment of players' gameplay when they encounter problems like this. I'm now getting an average of 4 stars now instead of the 5 I was receiving prior to Issue 17's release.

Another Update.

It appears that character's with certain "armored" costume pieces like "Chest -> Armored" have lost these and set to defaults. They will appear as they normally did before in the mission, but if you try to edit them their costumes will change to default pieces. What it looks like to me is that some of these were updated making the old versions no longer selectable.


WN

My Winged Monkeys lost their tails. I think all tails might be lost. I was able to fix this by going in and selecting a movable tail.

I think it's totally unfair to mark down an arc when it's got a quite obvious bug in it, especially if you're playing right after an Issue comes out.

When I've found obvious bugs like that, I just quit the arc and send a comment to the author to let them know, and make a note of the arc so I can play through it again when the problem's been fixed.

I'll play through your arc and 5 star it to balance out the low marks you've gotten because of the bug, Wrong Number - and I can do that for anyone else who's been marked down for something beyond the author's control.

Uh oh....Im going to have to have to check Heart of Steel, in that case...
The ENTIRE enemy group was recloured Nem soldiers... *scurries off*

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.