Having ton of fun with the Mission Architect.
By
Darth_Khasei,
Posted on: 2012-01-10 10:51 in Mission Architect
It's been an approved use of MA even back in the days of Positron's anti-farming rant fallout. Challenge missions and basic stories have never been frowned on, only optimized min-maxed farms. You can tell which ones these are because there are about a thousand nearly identical copies.
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 thought what I was doing was approved use but good to have confirmation. Thanks.
Quote:
Everything is fair game |
Originally Posted by Fritzy
Hopes that is an okay approved way to think about and use the MA?
|
No way man this is TOTALLY exactly what I love about mission architect. For instance: I like blowing up robots. So what do I do? Build a custom villain group out of Rikti Drones, Arachnos Tarantulas, Warhulks, and anything else I can find that explodes, and go to town.
Build horrible villain groups out of cross buffing enemies, enemies that spam AOE's, holds, endurance drains, quicksand, and more, then make a timed escort mission for a melee aggressive AI ally with no attack powers.
All this and more. I'm no writer, but I like designing missions. Sometimes with a very loose definition of "design".
Mission Arc: Metatronic Mayhem (Id 1750): A tale of robots gone wrong, rogue robots gone right, and madmen gone every which way but loose.
My guilty confession:
I love using unusual 'idle' stances for bad guys.
Oh, the shame of it....
I like building custom groups to fight against. I love the variety.
The development team and this community deserved better than this from NC Soft. Best wishes on your search.
^ Ditto. I've been F2P for 2 months and the thing that made me want to resub most was the ability to make missions. Think I might just reroll an alt and run her 1-50 through AE making custom groups as I go.
I have made and deleted way more custom critters than I have ever used in anything.
I like picking powers and making costumes to fit character concepts I have absolutely no interest in ever playing. Trying to make a group that is thematically cohesive but not annoying is also fun.
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'm a writer. It's my addiction. One of the aspects of City of Heroes that I love best is the creative freedom that starts right at the character creation screen and never really stops. You can play the game however you like, you can redesign your character on a whim, and you can build a base even if there is only one person in your SG.
Back in the day, I wrote one of the original suggestions for more player-controlled content. There were about three of us who wrote up long suggestions for mission editors, map editors, enemy editors, etc. The final result of three years of campaigning for more player-controlled content was the Architect Edition which I pre-ordered the day it was announced.
I don't play MA missions everyday. Truth be told, I only indulge in MA missions every couple of months. Like many people, the sheer volume of farms annoys me, but by the same token, that is a necessary freedom to have in place. For some players making the perfect farming mission is a form of creative expression. For others, it gives them the freedom to pick and choose a favored enemy group.
Personally, I love the Mission Architect. It is one of the most innovative and original features that City of Heroes offers. It is so innovative I often wish they'd spend a bit more time and money featuring it in their advertising because I have found nothing else out there that even comes close.
If anyone is curious, the two missions I currently have up are
345127 "All the wrong places"
345128 "A Tale of Four Wizards"
I am currently in the middle of developing a third original storyarc, which is what brought into the forum in the first place. I was curious to see what's fashionable nowadays.
================================================== ===
AE Story Arc #536752: Torn Asunder
An army from far, far away has been driven from their homeland and landed on Earth. They desperately need a new home and they're liking the look of ours.
================================================== ===
Does anyone else think like this?
I thoroughly enjoy the Mission Architect but...
I can't write stories. I can't even make them up in my head.
I don't desire lots of positive ratings or a plethora of xp/tickets from +4x8.
I don't seek out exploits (wouldn't know one if I found one).
I am terrible at writing reviews or fairly judging other's work.
But, what I've found I can do (and enjoy) is setting up personal favorite and challenging scenarios within the MA and using the search tools to find missions from others who appear to have done the same.
My scenarios are usually fairly straight forward and basic, commonly focused on executing a simple plan in a unique way...to please no one but myself. For example: using huge The Abyss map to set-up an hour long scenario involving Nemesis or the Rikti - a storyless scenario probably no one but myself would enjoy.
They are published and out there for all to use but it really doesn't matter if anyone else ever finds, reviews or play them. I felt really odd the other day when someone unexpectedly did find one and gave it 3 stars. Got a real chuckle out of that. Whatever were they searching for???
I just want to have fun and find that the MA is the perfect sandbox within CoX for creating that fun.
Hopes that is an okay approved way to think about and use the MA?