Custom Character Errors

From the known Issues List:

"Mission Architect

* Existing custom characters will display an error when you attempt to edit them in previously published missions.
o You will still be able to edit the characters but they display the initial error message due to changes in costume categories."


How do you fix this or determine what is wrong? I have broken arcs now due to I21 and when I I go to edit the characters there is no way to tell what is wrong and I can even save the character, but not republish the arc. Anyone know or am I wasting more of my time?


WN

Ran into this on my Enter the Father Hat Gang arc.

It listed all the offending/missing costume options on each individual custom character in the group but still errored out after trying to fix them.

There was 1 missing costume part that I could not find to replace and it was still coming up as missing. I'm going to try and replace it with something completely new tonight and see if that fixes it.

For now, tho, it's just completely borked. Luckily, the Crafter's Cafe made it through unscathed!

Update: no luck fixing the customs even by completely changing outfit parts.

Also, I think the schoolgirl shirt's neck kerchief chest detail is gone for good. Can't find it anywhere.

I too have this error. it is proving impossible to fix so far and have an ongoing case.

The initial advice was "It's possible that you outfitted these characters with costumes created before the Head Start update. You will likely need to remove these characters and create new characters with different costumes.

You can find more information on this topic on the City of Heroes message boards. You can reach the message board at https://boards.cityofheroes.com. Please contact us if you have any further questions or concerns. "

Which is a nobrainer. I mean, I was editing an arc one day after the head start.

HOWEVER: I create a new custom group, edit a new mob for it, accept ALL defaults and still get “Custom Character Costume: Failure to Load: Bad Costume Part Detected”.

At I21 default settings.

I'll post any success here. Update sent to supprt a few minutes before I posted this.

Luckily, NONE of my stuff seems to have been hit. I haven't run through everything on my arcs (well, ok, I blitzed PENGUIN in about 15 minutes last night), but none of them are giving errors in the editor, yet.

Here's hoping they get all this fixed for everyone who did suffer changes!

I was under the impression from the i21 beta-bug threads that, for now, no arcs with custom toons can published, no pre-existing arcs can be edited and re-published, etc. I may be wrong on that though.

It makes me sad though, here we are with any number of slots we want and... (insert raspberry sound effect here). I'm thinking to retool an arc idea I've had to make it completely based around an in-game group... but I still had one open slot anyways. :/

I can't imagine those slots are selling too well right now, ya know?

I was the one who originally reported this bug.

We found out about it too late in beta for anything to be done in a timely manner. The problem is the consolidation Jay did in the player costume editor, which trickled through to AE... but produces costume files that AE doesn't know how to read. Even a costume set entirely to the default look will cause problems.

For now, best advice is not to tinker with your arcs. Let it sit until the bug is fixed. They ARE working on it, we reported our findings and the devs are aware of the issue. Once it's fixed you should be able to edit your existing arcs without having to re-create everything from scratch. (I don't know that for sure, but that's the only sane way to fix the problem, so.)

I've run into this as well in an arc (one I happened to transfer over to Live from Beta) or two, and /bugged it myself, but it's good to know what's going on rather than me running around like a head-cut-off chicken trying to plan what to do if it's not fixed by the time I want to run the thing.

I've been having a long (good!) dialogue with support, and have referenced it in thei bug thread here:http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...3&postcount=72 including some of their most recent reply.

As it stands I cannot create any custom character, even default ones from MA, or custom groups. Any 'fixes' made do not save. Another player today sent me there new cvg and story arc, which they published today, with nil errors; but when I load and try to test, it fails -- will not even Test, and the custom group is invalid.

So some players have an issue, others do not.

In essence, nil MA for custom groups or content using custom mobs for me. I'll post back naything I get fiurther.

ps: and thank you TwoFlower for your sane post two above this.

I don't think this is the simple costume issue referred to in Known issues.

I'm confused about this; will this break existing arcs, or does it only come into play if you try to EDIT a custom character? None of my arcs are really anything I need to edit anymore, so it's not as if being prevented from changing them is a problem for me, but I'm wondering if this prevents them from being run, or causes customs to display improperly?

Yet something else the devs have broken while obsessing over MARTy.

Just broke again this evening.

I was working on a mission edit with one character and it was fine. I log into another to attempt to publish it and play it, and the error is there. Going to edit another mission that seems fine also causes it to come up with the error and become unpublishable.

*shrug*

So far this has only happened on characters below 50.

Good news, everyone!

It seems the bug is fixed. Loading an arc which was giving me costume errors yesterday into the editor today... no errors, and it's publishable!

I'll start releasing new arcs weekly, I think, until I clear out my backlog.