Mission Architect Issues List

This is attempted to be a complete list of the major problems affect the Mission Architect and how it relates to both players and authors.

The User Interface

The search tool
or why is it so hard to find the good arcs you want to play?

The front page
or why do the same 15 arcs get the most visible spot for over a year?

Arcs that should be inactive
or why do we have to wade through junk to find the gems?

Availability of all mission text
or why can't we all see the whole story?

Arc Slots

Is eight enough?
or why are we penalized for being a prolific author?

The Ratings System

Are Star Ratings the best way
or why is a 1-star five times more important than a 5-star?

The Betrayal System

*Bug - Doesn't always do what you want it to

The User Interface

The search tool, or how to find the arcs you want to play.

problem: When you try to search for the kind of arc you want to play, there are too many arcs that you don't want to play at all that show up. And arcs with 5 or less 5-stars show up much higher than arcs with a couple hundred votes at 4-stars.

solutions:

*Allow players to check a box to hide an arc from view - this helps repeated searches to avoid searching through the same bad arcs over and over to try and find the good ones.

*Adjust the display mode. More plays should be more important than a higher average. i.e. 500 4-stars is more significant than 2 5-stars.

The Front Page, or where most players find arcs to play.

The Problem: The front page hasn't changed in almost a year, but that is what most players see when they first load up the AE. Also, a front page arc gets a significant number of more plays than any other arc.

Solutions:

Tabbing: Add tabs to the front page for the guest arcs, dev choice arcs, and hall of fame arcs so they're not automatically shown on the front page.

Alternate Sorting: Change the sort order on the front page to only show maybe 3 guest author arcs, 3 dev choice, 3 hall of fame, 3 5-star arcs, and 3 random arcs. Or anything else that allows the front page to be much less static.

Arc Slots

Is Eight Enough?

Problem: In a few cases, often for some of the best authors in the community, eight slots is not enough arcs over the course of a couple years. And the other methods of getting a new slot is extremely few and far between.

Solution:

Allow a higher maximum for arc slots. Is there a reason to limit it to eight?

Allow other methods of gaining new slots above the maximum. A new vet reward, similar to character slots. 1 or 2 new arc slots a year? Lower the requirements of Hall of Fame to something more accurate to current play volume?

The Ratings System

The Star System

Problem: The Star Rating system just doesn't work the way it's intended. A 1-star rate is many times more powerful than a 5 star rate, especially combined with the low overall play volume.

Solution:

Add a different method of calculating the final star rating that is more accurate for lower total rates. Something that gives a single 1-star much less, or at least equal power to a single 5-star.

Change the rating system. Many popular sites like YouTube and Facebook have switched to a like/dislike, or even just like. This would solve a lot of the ratings problems, including the sorting problem. The best way would seem to be to convert all 3, 4, and 5 star to "like" or "thumbs up", and either get rid of, or convert all 1 and 2 stars to "dislike" or "thumbs down".

Arcs that Should be Inactive

Problem: There are thousands of arcs in the system that are mistakes, exploit farms that have been fixed, test arcs that serve no purpose, arcs that became bugged from a patch and haven't been updated.

Solution: There should be a way to hide these arcs from view. Either globally, or on an individual basis. The default should be to hide "work in progress" arcs.

Presentation of Mission Text to all team members

Problem: When running on a team only the leader has access to the contact's bio, busy text, and debriefing dialogue. In order for the team to completely follow the story the leader has to copy/paste the text into chat for the rest of the team to follow along. Copy/Pasting is character limited by chat so it often takes multiple copy/pastes to pass the info along to the rest of the group.

Solution: Make the text available to all members of a team, either via a new tab that is active for AE missions or make the contact interactive with all team members but actual mission decisions only apply from the leader.

Arachnos Cruise Missiles No Longer Your Friend

Problem: Arachnos cruise missiles set to "Ally" will no longer blow up your enemy (as of the latest issue), unless the enemy can be convinced to pummel the missile, in which case it eventually causes a little bit of damage when it is destroyed. This means your villain's acts of terrorism can only be implied, not actual, and your heroes have to find more appropriate ways to be heroic.

Solution: Oh I see what you did there

crawls away to rethink his arc

Arc: 379017: Outbroken See all your old friends in the Outbreak Tutorial sequel!
Arc: Coming Soon: The Incarnate Shadow Shard of Fire and Ice Mender Rednem needs you!
Massively.com opinion poll: Please Help Save CoH!

EDIT: Sorry, after consideration I don't think this is a thread to discuss these problems. Just a "DEVS LOOK HERE" consolidation of major issues. Taking the threadjack away.

Fredrick had the idea we should do what YouTube does. Thumbs up or Thumbs down system AKA Like/Dislike. It's a fair system and makes it easier for everyone involved.

How they'd put such a system in would be rough considering all the old arcs on the old system. Maybe even impossible. But I think everyone agrees the 5 star system is for the birds.

Vitalize Power Doesn't Charge

Problem: Just that. The Master Architect Accolade Power doesn't charge. It's been like that for about four issues now. Not a massive game-breaker issue, but it is a "bug" with the AE system which does not appear to be WAI.

Solution: Fix it? Please? Or allow a different power, like a Ticket Vendor Discount coupon, maybe? Or a XP-less "Kill Target" power that charges?

Yeah what WN said-^ That's why I said it would probably be very difficult to implement a new system.

Only thing that seems fair is every 5 star vote would equal a thumb up on a Like/Dislike system. That way old arcs would still be at the same point in their HOF climb.

Ok then, wipe everything clean, including the number of plays (I'm sure this idea will go over well too!). Some of those old arcs are broken these days anyways.

To be a tad more serious, I do like the idea of a five star vote equaling thumbs up; I think I'd toss in 4-star ratings too. But then I wonder if they'd decide to also make 1-star and two-star ratings thumbs down, just to "be fair"?

And to bring up something else, I've been idly thinking about the 8-slot max and wondering if they don't want to keep it there to encourage us to take off older arcs. Perhaps they're thinking that, theoretically, the arcs a person with 8 full slots is doing these days should be better due to more skill and so on. There may also be an issue with people who've had banned arcs and lost a slot just buying more and putting up more ban-able stuff (or reposting the banned ones). Just idle thoughts...

Edited first post to add a couple more things, and links.

Quote:

Originally Posted by twelfth Vitalize Power Doesn't Charge Problem: Just that. The Master Architect Accolade Power doesn't charge. It's been like that for about four issues now. Not a massive game-breaker issue, but it is a "bug" with the AE system which does not appear to be WAI. Solution: Fix it? Please? Or allow a different power, like a Ticket Vendor Discount coupon, maybe? Or a XP-less "Kill Target" power that charges?

I didn't add this one to the front post because this seems like a day job bug instead of a mission architect bug.

The major issue I have is essentially "We Cant do Everything that the Devs can" as far as mission design.

Examples:
1. I cant precisely place boss mobs or glowies on the map, it is usually random.

2. I cant switch contacts in an arc.

3. I cant spawn another boss mob after defeating "Boss 1". ( i.e. Nemesis appearing after you defeat the Rikti Lord of War )

4. I cant have Boss mobs teleport away when I have them close to defeat.

5. I cant design my own maps.

As far as getting the Devs to actually do anything? Good luck with that. Going back and enhancing existing functionality doesnt sell subscriptions - the next new "shiny" does.

Also wondering if there will eventually be a way to edit/create our own maps? Or if not, gain access to a wider variety of maps.. once you've done some arcs, after awhile, depending on your story context, you start to run out of options. Or alternatively, there are certain maps that could really be used as a main scene for an arc from the game but its still not available (e.g. the Abyss map).

They should also allow the function added to GR/tip missions where you could take a boss down to a certain health level (e.g. 1/4) and then have them turn into an ally; would make for more interesting twists.

And finally, should be allowed to have non-combat NPC's or civilians that walk around without being allied with either side in a fight, maybe even (its a stretch) react during a fight and run/hide like they do in the regular game.