ZamuelNow

Sorry to bug you @Zhym, but Dhahabu Kingdom and the Indelible Curse of Hate is missing it's arc ID, 60044.

With a Discord, the issue is having to mod it. Plus, all the other inefficiencies and headaches of Discord. As far as an in game channel, technically Architect Chat already exists. I just never see anyone on it. Granted, I'm almost never on it either. But a chat channel or a Discord both run into the problem of people knowing they exist to be on them. Advertising should most likely be done in game but I myself have a tendency to not to be on during prime time. Word of mouth feels so much harder than the retail days. The next thing on my end is wanting someone to assist in running MASS. It's hard to build up regularity if most shards only get visited twice a year. Two team leads means the six shards can be split into two groups of three. Other thing about having a secondary leader is means that there's breathing room if I have to miss a day.

That sounds fine. I'd suggest authors give it a month after the contest ends before they make changes so people can see what the entry was like as an entry but they aren't held to that.

So @Blackbird4329, what do you think so far? Planning to make your coalition more or less similar to MASS? Any ideas of things to change or ways to advertise?

There's different things in play. Technically, once Page 3 comes out any author can raise the max level of their arc to 55. The issue with Dev's Choice arcs is that once the award is given, the arc is effectively locked and any changes by the author causes it to lose Dev's Choice status. To my understanding, back in the retail days an author could in game petition to be allowed to make a change (typo fix, fixing a broken enemy, etc) and have the Dev's Choice reinstated. I planned to ask around after the Page drops officially.

Ooohh...I think I get it better. I'm not sure. While text and customs add to an arc's Length, a lot comes from the maps themselves and some can be weird. I think a lot of the Unique maps add more but I don't know exactly what sets it.

Long is only allowed for 3 missions. That's the only exception for "Medium" length.

Oops, that's what I meant.

I'd assume the broken one should be changed but I don't know what it should be changed to.

One more thing needs to be added to the Patch Notes: Tailors in your base are now usable by Praetorian characters. It was adjusted this Page but not added to the patch notes.

While I won't give a suggestion as a judge, I'd actually encourage writers help each other. Iron sharpens iron and all that.

This is why more eyes are needed. Out of bounds destructibles would be a problem if the map hit Live.

Update: The Homecoming team has graciously added Prismatic Aether to the prize pool! First post has been updated.

As someone who regularly plays AE, I buy uncommon and rare salvage with tickets at times. But even as someone who does use tickets I'd absolutely never convert incarnate threads to tickets.

Please use this thread only for the contest submissions for the Medium Midlevel Matinee. Discussion and questions about the rules should go here.

Please ask any questions here. Submissions here.

Struggling with your character in the valley between level 20 and level 40? Can’t find anything that won’t turn you to paste in AE when you select “My Level” because it’s left on the default 1-54? Want to be creative but lack the spark to make a new arc? The Mission Architect Sunday Special proudly presents the Medium Midlevel Matinee! To close out 2025, we present AE writers with a contest to build a medium sized arc for midlevel players. If successful, this will be an annual contest. This year’s theme will be: Hobbies! Whether it be heroic or villainous, write an arc centered around the antics a super might encounter in their downtime. With the prompt out of the way, what are the fine details? Rules and Judging Submissions must be marked as Final, have a level no lower than 20 and no higher than 40, and have a length of Medium. Any arc not set to Final or outside the level range will be disqualified. Authors may use a smaller level range for their arc (similar to how most official story arcs are only five or ten levels). Due to the quirks of the AE interface and how it calculates length, a Long arc will be allowed if it is only 3 or fewer missions. Though you can stretch for comedy or tragedy, the arc must take place in Paragon City, the Rogue Isles, or Praetoria and feel like it fits in City of Heroes. One entry per person. Judges may not enter. This year’s judges are @ZamuelNow, @Darmian, and @Lunar Ronin. Entries will be graded on a rubric to help with fairness but considering writing and opinions on writing are subjective, entries are not expected to make a “perfect” score. We celebrate the creativity of all the entrants. Entries must be submitted to the entry thread with Arc ID, in game global, arc name, and the arc’s description. Arcs must be published after Sunday November 2nd, 2025 6:00 PM EST, with an Arc ID greater than 69600. Entries will be accepted until Saturday, January 3rd, 2026, at 11:59 PM EST. Prizes First place: 300 million inf + the Lords of Winter, Heroes and Villains, and Rogues and Vigilantes Super Packs + 500 Prismatic Aether Second place: 150 million inf +the Heroes and Villains and Rogues and Vigilantes Super Packs + 250 Prismatic Aether Third place: 50 million inf + the Heroes and Villains and Rogues and Vigilantes Super Packs + 100 Prismatic Aether

For today's Mission Architect Sunday Special, we ran: @Take One's Evolve or Die (#34209) Second chance situations! We returned to complete this well tailored arc as we complete the runs for the year. Later on, I'll post a post mortem on my thoughts of this first year of MASS and maybe go ahead and post next year's schedule. But most of all I have to say thank you for everyone who's participated in this first year. Until next time...

Change every usage of the character and the group it's in and change it to a non custom. Save. Then change the group and custom, then re-add the customs as needed. I believe arcs save a duplicate of all custom info so you need to change the arc first.

In the broad strokes, I think the arc ends better than it starts. The first two missions don't feel that focused but it feels like it starts tying together with the third arc and it's non combat status. A lot of this is both the first draft nature and outdoor maps with random placement. It also feels like it's two different arcs combined. The arc utilizes a reveal that I'm actually glad Paragon didn't get use but went about it in what might as well be the best way to utilize it. I think a special note should be made on the difficulty. I play on +0x2 and there was a bit of over aggro in the second mission particularly. I think there's a custom with higher than normal perception. The customs work well on a visual level but felt overtuned for level 35. Regular Shivans seemed to be showing up in all boss spawns (I forget if Shivans do that naturally). The other note is on tone. The dialogue of Dark Watcher seems too...friendly? Not sure I can place the word but he's usually more firm than he seemed here. He felt off but only subtly so since he didn't seem wildly out of character otherwise. On to the more nitpicky typo and grammar quirks:

The Mission Architect Sunday Special returns to Indomitable for the final run of the year on Sunday, November 2nd at 2PM EST in the RWZ.

Rogue Isles also has one in the southeast of Cap. It's fully paved with lighting and an air control tower.

Dhahabu Kingdom and the Indelible Curse of Hate has an enemy with Gravity Distortion Field. This power has been removed.

For today's Mission Architect Sunday Special, we ran: @Shadowlynx's Hero Corps: Fun and Games (#69672) Halting mythical mayhem! As you see, I have them right where we want them... A good mixed team tackled a semi random pick of an arc published recently. Despite some initial setbacks, we made our way through a well structured arc. While maybe some of the debuff stacked a bit much on a team, a veritable showcase of some of the hidden gems that often don't get focus in AE. Not only did they put their outro text in the end clue, one boss was coded to run at low health. NEXT TIME... MASS gets the final run of the year as it returns to Indomitable on November 2.