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That'd be an awfully long list. Awfully long.
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Originally Posted by Aura_Familia
In the same issue, allow story writers to put their stories as part of existing in world contacts. Let me explain: If a player walks up to a contact, and clicks "What else is going on" a list of MA story arcs opens up that are level appropriate to the contact.
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Emphasis on Awful.|
Originally Posted by Clave_Dark_5
That'd be an awfully long list. Awfully long.
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You appear to be suggesting that the flaw lies in the tickets - and, for some strange reason, the building itself.
I don't believe this would hold out, in practice. While farming for tickets is quite beneficial, possibly (probably) moreso than 'farming' conventional maps, you've actually done nothing to eliminate farms - in fact, you specifically note you haven't.
What AE needs, more than anything, is a feature by which dead (and, preferably, 'bad', but that's simply not possible - my trash, your treasure, and whatnot) arcs are pruned. Instant improvement.
(Exploits closed, too, but the regular game requires that, too.)
The only, but absolute, flaw with the AE system is the presence of Sturgeon's Law.
So, in short.. play my way not yours?
Pass.
I hear the cool kids are out of AE and after this thing called "Incarnate shards".
Ignoring anyone is a mistake. You might miss something viral to your cause.
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So screw over authors who like to come up with their own contacts rather than using the same old ones we've seen a billion times. No thanks.
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Originally Posted by Aura_Familia
In the same issue, allow story writers to put their stories as part of existing in world contacts.
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I am all for this suggestion as long as you are in one of the buildings when it gets nuked!
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Originally Posted by Aura_Familia
Pulled out from another thread:
My suggestion, have an event that nukes all the AE buildings from orbit. In the same issue, allow story writers to put their stories as part of existing in world contacts. Let me explain: If a player walks up to a contact, and clicks "What else is going on" a list of MA story arcs opens up that are level appropriate to the contact. For ex, Azuria would only be allowed to be the contact for lvls 1-5 content, and would only display levels 1-5 mission arcs. Put in a "suggest a contact button" for MA authors who aren't familiar with the level ranges of every zone and contact, which would suggest a contact and a zone for an author's story. Make it so that All MA stories must be at least 3 missions long. Normalize all xp so that it's the same xp you get from regular missions. For custom critters, put in a slider for authors: one side says "customized" the other side says "100% xp". The more you move from one side of the slider to another the more you lose the other option. Keep tickets as is. Keep inf as is. Mark clearly when an MA story is a custom critter fest. Perhaps use the old "this might be tough without friends" line. Hire a full time team of GMs to specifically watch for when exploits are used. (Anyone who thinks the current customer service team is of adequate size to do anything about the exploit issues is fooling themselves.) Use the 3 strikes you're out system. Farming should be left as is. If someone wants to farm, as long as they ARE NOT using exploits let em. Just put in a button in the contacts window I mentioned above that says "do not show farms", or "do not show combat only". Not going to dwell on this part of my suggestion as i couldn't care less if someone farms or not, as long as they aren't using exploits. Get rid of stars, HOF, and other stupid dev awards. Just put in a thumbs up or thumbs down system. Those stories with high thumbs show up higher in the "what else is going on" menu for contacts. You MUST complete at least the FIRST mission of an arc (remember I suggested all arcs be a minimum of three missions above). I used to be against having to complete a mission before rating an arc, but no longer care if it improves the AE. Reward authors who get many thumbs up. For every 10 give them a free AE story slot. Allow all authors the ability to earn up to 10 free ones. Once they get to more than 100 free AE slots, and get the 110th one, drop a random Pool C in their email. (Remember you have to complete at least one story in an AE arc until you can rate it.) Disallow all the old auto complete tricks that allowed a person to finish a mission by just walking into it, killing one mob (unless it's an EB, AV), clicking one glowie to auto end a mission, etc, etc. Those are my suggestions. Have at them. |
The real solution to *AE problems*? Have NCSoft start selling infs and new characters starting at level 50. Yeah there will be a lot of players complaining about how such an option is unfair to them since they can't afford it but really now, life isn't fair.
Okay seriously, I'm not bringing up this silly suggestion to be sarcastic or controversial. I brought it up because it's the plain truth. There will always people that want to be wealthy or to skip the pointless lower level grind. No matter how the game system is changed, that mentality is not going away and people *will* find ways. After all, no MMO has ever managed to successfully remove farming, PLing, etc. Now I'm not saying the developers shouldn't try to keep it under control. I'm just suggesting that there comes a point in time where more resources shouldn't be devoted into solving a *problem* that really has no solution. Such continuous escalation between exploits and counter-measures is endless. It only diverts critical resources away from advancing the future evolution of the game which in my opinion, is not good for its long term survival.
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Except that we have a "non-canon" tag for stories that this would completely not work for.|
Originally Posted by Aura_Familia
In the same issue, allow story writers to put their stories as part of existing in world contacts. Let me explain: If a player walks up to a contact, and clicks "What else is going on" a list of MA story arcs opens up that are level appropriate to the contact. For ex, Azuria would only be allowed to be the contact for lvls 1-5 content, and would only display levels 1-5 mission arcs. Put in a "suggest a contact button" for MA authors who aren't familiar with the level ranges of every zone and contact, which would suggest a contact and a zone for an author's story.
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| Make it so that All MA stories must be at least 3 missions long. |
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| For custom critters, put in a slider for authors: one side says "customized" the other side says "100% xp". The more you move from one side of the slider to another the more you lose the other option. |
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| Keep tickets as is. Keep inf as is. Mark clearly when an MA story is a custom critter fest. Perhaps use the old "this might be tough without friends" line. |
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| Hire a full time team of GMs to specifically watch for when exploits are used. (Anyone who thinks the current customer service team is of adequate size to do anything about the exploit issues is fooling themselves.) Use the 3 strikes you're out system. |
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| Disallow all the old auto complete tricks that allowed a person to finish a mission by just walking into it, killing one mob (unless it's an EB, AV), clicking one glowie to auto end a mission, etc, etc. |
Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
I would like to see missions accessible from the actual contacts out in the world for thematic reasons, but nuking the AE buildings is not an option for reasons others have already pointed out.
I also agree that the devs need to acknowledge AE farming (when it's not an exploit) and have a "farm" tag for arcs. I doubt they'll hire more GMs to police the AE for exploits, however. Sadly, AE has only been a big draw when an exploit has become popular.
I like the replacing stars with thumbs up/down idea.
The rest of the OPs ideas, however, are not beneficial. They're either irrelevant or a handicap to authors. If AE is to be fixed, first it has to get more player interest. It seems the devs have little desire to act in this regard.
That leaves it up to the player base that is supporting AE. If it's to be fixed, then players are going to have to get players interested in running missions there. There are alot of threads and events here for authors, but none to generate players. As long as AE is just a tiny niche, anything other than fixing exploits and adding maps is going to be far on the backburner.
@Doctor Gemini
Arc #271637 - Welcome to M.A.G.I. - An alternative first story arc for magic origin heroes. At Hero Registration you heard the jokes about Azuria always losing things. When she loses the entire M.A.G.I. vault, you are chosen to find it.
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Many of the threads here are for players. Unfortunately, most of the players are also the authors. We pretty much just play each other's arcs over and over.|
Originally Posted by Doctor_Gemini
That leaves it up to the player base that is supporting AE. If it's to be fixed, then players are going to have to get players interested in running missions there. There are alot of threads and events here for authors, but none to generate players. As long as AE is just a tiny niche, anything other than fixing exploits and adding maps is going to be far on the backburner.
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As for players getting players interested, I've seen the complaints in the general forums, (all I can find is farms, XP sucks, allies leech XP, etc) and tried to respond to them by pointing to player-created resources designed to help people find arcs to play, pointing out that allies no longer leech XP, the XP is less but tickets are better than regular drops, and have been met with deafening silence. Whether any of these non-AE regulars actually decide to check out something like PoliceWoman's thread and play arcs from it, I don't know. It sure doesn't seem like it though.
Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
Quote:
I was thinking more along the lines of in-game events. However, since I suck at promoting things, I'm probably not one to be making suggestions.
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Originally Posted by Eva Destruction
Many of the threads here are for players. Unfortunately, most of the players are also the authors. We pretty much just play each other's arcs over and over.
As for players getting players interested, I've seen the complaints in the general forums, (all I can find is farms, XP sucks, allies leech XP, etc) and tried to respond to them by pointing to player-created resources designed to help people find arcs to play, pointing out that allies no longer leech XP, the XP is less but tickets are better than regular drops, and have been met with deafening silence. Whether any of these non-AE regulars actually decide to check out something like PoliceWoman's thread and play arcs from it, I don't know. It sure doesn't seem like it though. |
@Doctor Gemini
Arc #271637 - Welcome to M.A.G.I. - An alternative first story arc for magic origin heroes. At Hero Registration you heard the jokes about Azuria always losing things. When she loses the entire M.A.G.I. vault, you are chosen to find it.
Quote:
Well, I can certainly speak to successful MA promotion. To promote MA I have:|
Originally Posted by Doctor_Gemini
I was thinking more along the lines of in-game events. However, since I suck at promoting things, I'm probably not one to be making suggestions.
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- Created the MA Arc Finder Channel
- Created and ran the MA Super Team. For the first six months I was leading the team through MA arcs three times a week.
- Hosted PERC MA related events
- Helped with several others to run the Bubbawheat created PC Awards
- Ran review threads
- I've also run events to promote my own arcs. For example the "Death to Disco! 400th" that incorporated promoting some aspect of MA too (in that case the MA Arc Finder channel)
I have many, many more ideas for promoting MA including forming a player run MA Promotional committee. However, I've been holding off because of lack of Dev interest in MA and my personal lack of slots despite authoring some of the highest player rated arcs in MA. These have caused my interest in MA and CoH in general to wane. I don't think I'm alone in these feelings.
WN
Check out one of my most recent arcs:
457506 - A Very Special Episode - An abandoned TV, a missing kid's TV show host and more
416951 - The Ms. Manners Task Force - More wacky villains, Wannabes. things in poor taste
or one of my other arcs including two 2010 Player's Choice Winners and an2009 Official AE Awards Nominee for Best Original Story
I'm with Wrong Number, I feel like I'm almost alone in this channel as much as I try things to help promote the MA. Some things haven't been as successful as I'd hoped, others have been more successful. I still hope for more dev activity, because that's the ONLY way to really get players re-involved in the MA. On every other forum, the MA is a joke about farms and exploits.
Even so, I'm slowly losing hope on this front. More and more people are leaving this niche, and it feels like it's going the way of PvP and bases.
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And we really appreciate it. Shame it's still only done so much. :/
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Originally Posted by Wrong_Number
Well, I can certainly speak to successful MA promotion. To promote MA I have: [etc.]
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Pulled out from another thread:
My suggestion, have an event that nukes all the AE buildings from orbit.
In the same issue, allow story writers to put their stories as part of existing in world contacts. Let me explain: If a player walks up to a contact, and clicks "What else is going on" a list of MA story arcs opens up that are level appropriate to the contact. For ex, Azuria would only be allowed to be the contact for lvls 1-5 content, and would only display levels 1-5 mission arcs. Put in a "suggest a contact button" for MA authors who aren't familiar with the level ranges of every zone and contact, which would suggest a contact and a zone for an author's story.
Make it so that All MA stories must be at least 3 missions long. Normalize all xp so that it's the same xp you get from regular missions. For custom critters, put in a slider for authors: one side says "customized" the other side says "100% xp". The more you move from one side of the slider to another the more you lose the other option.
Keep tickets as is. Keep inf as is. Mark clearly when an MA story is a custom critter fest. Perhaps use the old "this might be tough without friends" line.
Hire a full time team of GMs to specifically watch for when exploits are used. (Anyone who thinks the current customer service team is of adequate size to do anything about the exploit issues is fooling themselves.) Use the 3 strikes you're out system.
Farming should be left as is. If someone wants to farm, as long as they ARE NOT using exploits let em. Just put in a button in the contacts window I mentioned above that says "do not show farms", or "do not show combat only". Not going to dwell on this part of my suggestion as i couldn't care less if someone farms or not, as long as they aren't using exploits.
Get rid of stars, HOF, and other stupid dev awards. Just put in a thumbs up or thumbs down system. Those stories with high thumbs show up higher in the "what else is going on" menu for contacts. You MUST complete at least the FIRST mission of an arc (remember I suggested all arcs be a minimum of three missions above). I used to be against having to complete a mission before rating an arc, but no longer care if it improves the AE.
Reward authors who get many thumbs up. For every 10 give them a free AE story slot. Allow all authors the ability to earn up to 10 free ones. Once they get to more than 100 free AE slots, and get the 110th one, drop a random Pool C in their email. (Remember you have to complete at least one story in an AE arc until you can rate it.)
Disallow all the old auto complete tricks that allowed a person to finish a mission by just walking into it, killing one mob (unless it's an EB, AV), clicking one glowie to auto end a mission, etc, etc.
Those are my suggestions. Have at them.
Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
Flameboxer Aura LVL 50 SS/Fire Brute
Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
Darq Widow Fortune LVL 50 Fortunata (200% rech/Night Widow 192.5% rech)--thanks issue 19!