Hall of Fame requirements need revisiting

Hmmm. Folks, let us simply be grateful that we have the MA system. Let us also be grateful that there are players who create content for us! For nothing more than the fun of it. (Ok, the badge might be their fun)

Let us not worry about how many stars we got or did not get. Very few of us could sell our opinions for money. That is to say, comparisons are just not a good idea. Someone will always fall short in a comparison in the natural world, will they not?

Just play the stories you like. Rate them highly if you think they earned it. If not, don't.

Perhaps the Hall of Fame is an ideal that you simply are not meant to achieve unless you're very, very good at creating the right story lines at the right time.

But, let's get very real. It is still the developers that have made this game as supernatural as it is. To think that I could be playing (insert any popular arcade game here) at an arcade for 25 cents a game! What is that, compared to the awesomeness of this game?

I'm counting my blessings, as of late. One of them is being able to play this game.

Fred's response said most all of what I was going to say. I just want to add I'm out of slots to create more arcs after I finish the one I am working on. Once that is published my MA authoring career is over. I'm sure there are other MA authors in the same boat. HoF is the only other way besides DC to earn a new arc slot.

WN

I want to take a minute to apologize to those who I may have offended in my last post in this thread. I got to thinking about it after I left, and wanted you folks as a whole to know that though there are certainly some missions that I enjoy more than others, your efforts are not unnoticed, nor are they unappreciated. At least, not by me.

I guess I was reacting to something through my own individual filter and the wrong message came across. And you're absolutely right, FredrikSvanberg, I haven't been a part of the solution. My post did not help.

So, please, continue to plot, play and inform us of what should be addressed, if not altered. After all, if we don't tell the devs what we would like, then we might not have the wonderful game that we do. Consider my mouth closed, except to praise those who make the game fun.

I was just looking and noticed that the number of arcs at 5 stars 100+ plus plays has dropped from 13 to 11 out of 64,261 arcs in the system.

Can any redname please comment on HoF and if there are plans to modify it or look into it?


WN

To keep this thread alive I thought I would start posting monthly updates.

As of June 1st we now have the following breakdown of arcs with 100 or more plays and that are still rated at 5 stars.

Arcs Published Pre-15 - 11 (9 of these were published in April 09)
Arcs Published Post I-15 - 3

Total Number of arcs out of 64,562 arcs - 14

I has not been a full month since the first data was gathered, however it has been around three weeks. In that time the arc closest to HoF Status has gotten 2 plays.


WN

I can certainly attest to the difficulty of keeping a 5-star arc at 5-stars. "Hammer and Sickle of Paragon City" (351727) stayed at 5 stars for most of its first hundred or ratings or so. Since then, the arc is now at 132, but it's sitting at, at my best estimate, 4.3-4.4 stars, which is just shy of a 5 star rating. Even if it does get back up to showing 5 stars, a single 4 star rating invariably knocks it back down.

I used to push this arc pretty heavily, but because of the above facts, I've backed off for the most part. I believe it's a solid arc overall, and folks seem to have enjoyed it. . . but it's in 4 Star Heck right now, and because of that, it's never seeing plays--and it certainly doesn't have a chance at Hall of Fame at this rate if I can't get it up to a 5 star rating and hold it there, at least for the several 5 star rates needed to get a higher overall average and more recognition.

Not meaning to divert the thread or send in a whaaaaambulance. . . but there you go!

Speaking as someone who just came back to the game and has started playing with AE seriously for the first time, I say I find this a little disheartening. To me, it seems one of the biggest roadblocks the developers face over concerns expressed in this thread is the issue of farming. Any change that is considered need to be done so with examining if it would encourage more farming or making it easier.

One suggestion I had was diminishing returns for playing the same arcs repeatedly:

For example, the first two times you play through an arc, you get the normal amount of exp. The third time, it's 80%, then 50%, then 25%. After five times the arc is played, you get 10% exp from then on. This is reset after 24 hours.

To combat people quitting an arc right before it is complete to get around this, quitting after reaching a certain spot would count towards this (it could be number of missions complete in the arc, baddies defeated, time spent in the arc, etc.). This is why you would get two times in the arc before losing exp.

This would (hopefully) encourage people to play a larger variety of storyarcs.

However, there would be a trade-off here. Since farming one particular arc couldn't be accomplished with such ease, the developers could use exp as more of an incentive in other ways.

For instance:
- Similar to how ticket drops increase in longer arcs, exp would as well, maybe making people reconsider overlooking arcs marked "long" or "very long".
- The top ten arcs closest to HoF status give you a 15% exp bonus the first time you complete them.
- Every 25th unique mission you complete in the AE gives you an exp bonus.
etc.

This also ties into something else that I think needs to be done:

Obviously, the developers don't want people using the AE purely to powerlevel characters, so different encouragement needs to be given aside from just exp. Badges seemed to be one of the original ideas for this, but 75% of them were removed and nothing ever really replaced them. One thing I would suggest would be more rewards for Architect Tickets. Aside from just having the normal recipes and enhancements for sale (which you can use merits for), how about some that are unique to the Architect? This could even include a few costume options.

I also think it'd be cool to offer "Items of the Month". These would be four items (one for each week) that would only be available for purchase that month, with the following month having new items rotated in. These items could be anything from costume recipes to unique temp powers to even random fun things (like special costume change options, titles, etc.) (Just to be clear, an item could appear back as an Item of the Month a different month, just in case someone missed something they really wanted.)

Another suggestion would be to have a "Raffle". Every 72 hours, an item is added to the AE. For every 10 tickets you trade-in, you get one entry into the raffle. At the end of the 72 hours, one person is randomly selected from all entrants to win the prize.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FredrikSvanberg I've made many similar suggestions. My name is Fred. I usually prefer adding some kind of flag to hide the arcs instead of unpublishing them.

I'd say that's the best compromise. No one has to worry about an arc they consider to be finished to be removed because they didn't change anything, when nothing needs to be changed. It also allows those of us to remove some of the clutter. When you have over 60,000 arcs, a better system is definitely needed to find what you're looking for.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazarus Exactly. As was said in another thread, one person might consider 5-stars to be the equivalent of a 100% A+ grade, while another might still consider it to be a "A" grade but for 5-stars cover the entire 90-100% range rather than the uppermost bound.

I'll admit to realizing I was being a little harsher than I needed to be while rating missions. I used to look at 5-stars as being reserved for the absolute best-of-the-best, the arcs that blew me away. I probably gave 4-stars to a lot of arcs deserving 5-stars, and I going to have to change how I rate things. I think I'll start by going through and playing the arcs closest to HoF status.

As promised, here is the monthly update.


As of July 1st we now have the following breakdown of arcs with 100 or more plays and that are still rated at 5 stars.

Arcs Published Pre-15 - 11 (9 of these were published in April 09)
Arcs Published Post I-15 - 3

Total Number of arcs out of 65,481 arcs - 14

Put another way: .0002138% of the arcs in the system have more than 100 plays while still maintaining a 5 star rating.

WN

So, in short, Wrong Number. . . fat chance of anyone seriously getting Hall of Fame?

I'll preface with this: I like all the ideas in this thread. Keep 'em coming.

That said, I've got concerns about a few of the ideas. Doesn't mean I want the idea scrapped, maybe just refined.