Quote:
Yeah, if I were allowed to be a proper villain I'd be able to go kill him just to stop him from cluttering up my contact list!
|
Originally Posted by joebartender
Also as someone that has self pl'ed several times I wonder what the purpose of having the Studio Manager as a locked contact til level 10 is? I have never once had to talk to him to be able to use anything in AE.
|
@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:
4 1-star ratings on 30 arcs in one night mean only that doing this is far too easy, and the underlying system that makes it so easy needs to be changed. Do you honestly believe someone actually went through and played all 30 of those arcs to determine that they are crappy farms? Because I don't. Someone went around 1-starring arcs they had not played just to tick off the authors because the system is far too vulnerable to this kind of ******baggery. Taking action against four jerkwads isn't going to accomplish anything in the long run. Changing the system will.
|
Originally Posted by Doctor_Gemini
A 1-star rating means nothing. 4 1-star ratings, on every one of an authors arcs in one night, that coincide with the same number of 1-star ratings on the arcs of other authors who coincidentally happen to be rather vocal posters in the MA section of the forums is something else again. If CS does nothing about that then we don't need to bring it to the attention of any devs to be justified in calling them out.
|
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:
Moving the unlock level is a combination of "need" due to removing AE from the low level zones and "protecting the new player" by not directing them to AE until they are further along in the game. Removing AE from Mercy would be an issue of "parity" with Atlas even though I know that's not the main AE spot redside.
|
Originally Posted by joebartender
I do want to point out that redside they don't farm in Mercy, or PO the farms are most heavy in Cap.
Also as someone that has self pl'ed several times I wonder what the purpose of having the Studio Manager as a locked contact til level 10 is? I have never once had to talk to him to be able to use anything in AE. |
Quote:
Ah moving the unlock level makes sense now. In fact with the new low level sewer trial that is likely to have you end up at level 10 in two runs that is very likely the sweet spot for the unlock notice to direct a new comer there.
|
Originally Posted by Zamuel
Moving the unlock level is a combination of "need" due to removing AE from the low level zones and "protecting the new player" by not directing them to AE until they are further along in the game. Removing AE from Mercy would be an issue of "parity" with Atlas even though I know that's not the main AE spot redside.
|
Global: @Kelig
Quote:
He replied to the PM I just sent him and some of the community reps directing them to this thread saying he'll look into it. Hopefully something can be done. If anyone else has received recent multiple 1-star ratings on their story arc, please mention it here in this thread.|
Originally Posted by Eva Destruction
This actually brings up a good point...who do we complain to anyway, since the dev in charge of AE doesn't answer PMs from what I've heard.
|
I haven't checked recently, but on my most recent arc - Whack a Mole: Incarnate Edition Lambda sector, I got a 1-star about a week or so ago that dropped me down from 5 stars to 3 stars.
Anecdote: I have two story arcs that hadn't received a single play in like, a year. The other day, I got three 5-stars out of nowhere.
I18 Hamidon raiding guide
Quote:
Well now I'm confused. Someone way up there said you were in the "Confirmed 4 one-star ratings" club. But you're not?|
Originally Posted by Bubbawheat
I haven't checked recently, but on my most recent arc - Whack a Mole: Incarnate Edition Lambda sector, I got a 1-star about a week or so ago that dropped me down from 5 stars to 3 stars.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by ROBOKiTTY
Anecdote: I have two story arcs that hadn't received a single play in like, a year. The other day, I got three 5-stars out of nowhere.
|
Ambush City, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Ambush - Arc #1043
Strife of the Grave - Arc #3409
Shift - Arc #529411
Quote:
For her arcs, they needed 4 rates to drop the arc off of 5-star ratings. For mine, they only needed 1.
|
Originally Posted by Demonic_Gerbil
Well now I'm confused. Someone way up there said you were in the "Confirmed 4 one-star ratings" club. But you're not?
|
Quote:
As has probably been said in this thread, this is why I am very reluctant to return to AE. Best you can do is write NOT A FARM as many times as you can stand to, but I doubt farmers read very much of the descriptions anyway.
|
Originally Posted by Icy_J
 My arc is not a farm, it's a challenge arc, although it seems that the farm mentality got my arc a 1 star rating and pushed that far down the list. If you read my other thread, I try my best to get my arcs out there, and this is a stifling defeat for me. |
Chill.
============
50's: Jennifer Halloween, DM/DA Scrapper; Black Peet, 50 DM/WP Brute; Siansha, Soldier; Miss Terie, Elec/Dark Corrupter
Quote:
If you write NOT A FARM then farmers will be more likely to find it, as it will come up when someone searches "farm."
|
Originally Posted by Please_Eddie
As has probably been said in this thread, this is why I am very reluctant to return to AE. Best you can do is write NOT A FARM as many times as you can stand to, but I doubt farmers read very much of the descriptions anyway.
|
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:
|
Originally Posted by Giant2005
They might not be of any use to you but that doesn't mean they are crap and deserving of being rated as such. Surely you can respect the amount of time, effort and clever thinking put into the better farms out there.
I have personally logged over 24 hours of my time trying to tweak my farm to perfection and you know what? My farm is absolutely terrible. I refuse to use it even. Maybe you should try making a decent farm before you judge them all so harshly just so you realize how much effort and detail is really required. I am not referring to the plethora of crappy farms out there that you are probably most familiar with. They deserve whatever crappy rating you can give them - literally no thought has been put into them. I am advocating that the masterpieces be treated as such. Those that have been designed to be perfectly efficient with every small detail taken into account and the effort put in to not only do it once but to make a full 5 mission arc. |
Did you... after noticing that your farm ended up crappy... remove it from the AE?
Also.. a fire farm is lethal to all but a fire brute or tanker... and extremely boring in mobs. So unless you have the ability to survive the onslaught all fire farms are badly written for a non fire armour toon. It is just logic.
- The Italian Job: The Godfather Returns #1151
Beginner - Encounter a renewed age for the Mook and the Family when Emile Marcone escapes from the Zig!
- Along Came a... Bug!? #528482
Average - A new race of aliens arrives on Earth. And Vanguard has you investigate them!
- The Court of the Blood Countess: The Rise of the Blood Countess #3805
Advanced - Go back in time and witness the birth of a vampire. Follow her to key moments in her life in order to stop her! A story of intrigue, drama and horror! Blood & Violence... not recommend to solo!
Quote:
I can understand the issue with drive-by one-stars, but to say that the system is flawed because its difficult to retain a perfect score is sort of missing the point of a ratings system. The system isn't "weighted" towards lower scores; it takes just as few 5-stars to undo a ton of 1-stars as it does 1-stars to undo a ton of 5-stars.|
Originally Posted by Wrong_Number
This will never work as long as the rating system stands as it does now. It's simple math.
31 plays on an arc 27 5 Star Rates 04 1 star Rates --- 31 Total 27x5 = 135 Stars 04x1 = 04 Stars ----------------------' 139 Stars Total 139/31 = 4.48 which rounds down to a 4 Star Rating So, you need 28 5 star rates just to bring the rating back to 4.5 which is certainly a precarious place to be since even a 4 star at that point drops you back down to 4 stars. WN |
The problem, ultimately, is that no human being has the time to play, or even peruse, a hundred thousand arcs. No matter what rating system we put in, 95% will go mostly unseen. The fundamental problem was the devs kidding themselves into thinking we could service the needs of thousands of arc authors. We can't. We can service the needs of hundreds of arc authors, but not thousands. Someone has to decide by what standard we pick the 5% that will get the most attention. The other 95% are simply out of luck unless they can advocate attention by some means, and every time one of them succeeds someone else will in a relative sense fall.
[Guide to Defense] [Scrapper Secondaries Comparison] [Archetype Popularity Analysis]
In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
(Please support the best webcomic about a cosmic universal realignment by impaired angelic interference resulting in identity crisis angst. Or I release the pigmy water thieves.)
It might be helpful if a enough ratings are generated that the lowest and highest are tossed out so some outliners aren't factored in.
Quote:
The difference is that when an arc drops from 5 stars to anything less it's chance of being played virtually evaporates. If an arc is at 1 star to start with a 5 brings it up to a 3 which frankly is no better or worse than a 1 star when it comes to getting plays. |
Originally Posted by Arcanaville
I can understand the issue with drive-by one-stars, but to say that the system is flawed because its difficult to retain a perfect score is sort of missing the point of a ratings system. The system isn't "weighted" towards lower scores; it takes just as few 5-stars to undo a ton of 1-stars as it does 1-stars to undo a ton of 5-stars
|
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
Quote:
No, it's not a fundamental flaw in the ratings system, which classifies a 4-star arc as "excellent," it's a fundamental flaw in the sorting system.|
Originally Posted by Arcanaville
I can understand the issue with drive-by one-stars, but to say that the system is flawed because its difficult to retain a perfect score is sort of missing the point of a ratings system. The system isn't "weighted" towards lower scores; it takes just as few 5-stars to undo a ton of 1-stars as it does 1-stars to undo a ton of 5-stars.
|
Quote:
| Someone has to decide by what standard we pick the 5% that will get the most attention. The other 95% are simply out of luck unless they can advocate attention by some means, and every time one of them succeeds someone else will in a relative sense fall. |
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
if there absolutely has to be a list on start up of MA... what about a random 3 5-stars, followed by a random 3 4-stars and a random 3 3-stars...
This way the list is always different and shows enough to play a whole evening....
- The Italian Job: The Godfather Returns #1151
Beginner - Encounter a renewed age for the Mook and the Family when Emile Marcone escapes from the Zig!
- Along Came a... Bug!? #528482
Average - A new race of aliens arrives on Earth. And Vanguard has you investigate them!
- The Court of the Blood Countess: The Rise of the Blood Countess #3805
Advanced - Go back in time and witness the birth of a vampire. Follow her to key moments in her life in order to stop her! A story of intrigue, drama and horror! Blood & Violence... not recommend to solo!
Wow, everyone is getting hit now?
This is insane, and I seriously hope making this thread isn't what caused everyone to be targetted. It's definitely sounding like a mass griefing of sorts, but the only name we have tied to it as a @Jakarta.
I'll have to check my arcs when the servers come back up. I hope they didn't get pushed down more.
P.S.
Too much to reply too. In short, I agree with the rating system, the general attitude of MA, and that the interface definitely needs working over.
@Leetdeth - Virtue | MA Arcs(all challenge arcs): Big Magic Blowout! #369774 | Who Really Cares About This? Z! #509577 | That Meddling King! (teams recommended) #21450
My two old arcs are feeling left out, feel free to 1 star them so I don't get too lonely 
Ambush City, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Ambush - Arc #1043
Strife of the Grave - Arc #3409
Shift - Arc #529411
Quote:
- Doesn't put his globals on the forums. |
Originally Posted by Icy_J
Wow, everyone is getting hit now?
This is insane, and I seriously hope making this thread isn't what caused everyone to be targetted. |
- Doesn't have the forum name the same as either global name.
Yeah, I can be found, but I'm not particularly worth the bit of extra effort. *shrug*
Edit: Rephrasing comments...
A.E. has never given me the impression it was a good place to take teams and level through interesting missions. It seems to be a Farm haven for instant gratification players.
I despise AE and for what it has done to the game. AE farming is a curse.
Quote:
I've made almost this exact suggestion a few times already. Though my suggestion was 3 Dev Choice, 3 Hall of Fame, 3 5-star, 3 4-star, and 3 total random. Since the AE lists 15 arcs per page.
|
Originally Posted by Liz Bathory
if there absolutely has to be a list on start up of MA... what about a random 3 5-stars, followed by a random 3 4-stars and a random 3 3-stars...
This way the list is always different and shows enough to play a whole evening.... |
Does anyone ever think that maybe some are getting 1 star because of forum issues instead ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeHVY...eature=related
1. Why Soft Cap is Important : http://dechskaison.blogspot.com/2011...important.html
2. Limits: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Limits
3. Attack Mechanics: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Attack_Mechanics
4. Rule of Five: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Rule_o...e_Law_of_Fives
Quote:
How would that even be possible? And we even have evidence of at least two (or three, I think) being griefed, last time I checked.
|
Originally Posted by plainguy
Does anyone ever think that maybe some are getting 1 star because of forum issues instead ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeHVY...eature=related
|
@Leetdeth - Virtue | MA Arcs(all challenge arcs): Big Magic Blowout! #369774 | Who Really Cares About This? Z! #509577 | That Meddling King! (teams recommended) #21450
My story arcs remain majorly unscathed. My top-rated arc dropped to a 4 star, but everything else is the same as it was a few days ago, albeit one of them has a few more plays than I last checked.
@Leetdeth - Virtue | MA Arcs(all challenge arcs): Big Magic Blowout! #369774 | Who Really Cares About This? Z! #509577 | That Meddling King! (teams recommended) #21450
-----
Issue 21: Convergence presents the devs with the proverbial second chance to make a second impression since many new players will be encountering Mission Architect for the first time without the preconceived notions of the current playerbase. For this to work, they need to be given a chance to experience it in a positive environment. As a bit of a disclaimer, I'm heavily on the story side of the "farms vs stories" argument. I feel the key is not to remove the farms specifically but rather to make them less upfront. If a player wants to be powerleveled then that's their decision. However, they need to actually make that on their own rather than accepting a team invite, hitting level 50, and wondering if that's all there is to the game. This breaks down into a two part suggestion.
The first is to remove the AE building from Atlas and Mercy while either removing the Architect Studio Manager, moving his unlock to level 10, or making him an unlockable contact. The reasoning for this is to mitigate farm centric broadcast spam from the starting zones of the game. Those who want to farm AE can still easily manage to travel to adjacent zones while new players get a smoother New Player Experience. Architect Studio Manager could be unlocked through obtaining the Thrill Seeker badge which in turn could be placed right in front of the downstairs elevator. Thus, those who want to learn about AE get the option naturally as they enter the AE building while those who don't will never have an extra contact clogging up the menu.
The second is both to start the search interface with the Search Options and More expanded/opened up while also making the front page blank rather than presenting specific options already. I'm not a artist but I present this mockup as an example:
The goal is to treat the AE search interface more like an actual search engine. By requiring a search, it causes an "out of sight, out of mind" scenario. Now...all the farms will still be in the system but you have to actually be looking for them. In a similar vein, this change should hopefully be something of a morale boost for story writers in its own way. No need to worry about being pushed off page 4 because there is no page 4 until a search is made. Thus, more emphasis can be made on keywords and descriptions as opposed to the admittedly arbitrary star system.
This will not solve all problems with the Mission Architect system but it should help put the system on better footing so that other changes, features, and improvements can be made.
I do want to point out that redside they don't farm in Mercy, or PO the farms are most heavy in Cap.
Also as someone that has self pl'ed several times I wonder what the purpose of having the Studio Manager as a locked contact til level 10 is? I have never once had to talk to him to be able to use anything in AE.
Global: @Kelig