ZamuelNow

I thought the feedback was fairly useful. You get two sets of eyes giving itemized critique so you can see where they match or converge. This feels like the type of feedback you'd want.

Server: Indomitable Zone/Mission: Outdoor_Faultline_High_Rise Position: [534.7 -63.8 1479.2] I believe this has existed since the retail days but the AE version of Faultline's High Rise map has a boss or destructible object spawn that's in the Arachnos tunnels. Though these tunnels are within the bounds of the map, a player can not reach the entrances in the instance. Thus, someone outside of Test Mode might get a mission that can't be completed if a required objective spawns there. Had someone else help with finding this. Don't know how much a screenshot helps for this particular situation but still grabbed one.

Personally, I'd value clarity but I'm not a heavy badger. I'm also one of the people who suggested Roy Cooling so I'll wholly admit to having some bias.

I don't know of a dedicated channel but I have posted it in the AE section of Homecoming's Discord.

I like the first option since should be easier explain and update.

Congratulations to all the winners! As a fellow entrant, I've been slowly working through the complete list and been enjoying what I've been seeing.

Do you remember the name of the map? Was trying to find it so I can formally report the bug.

Postmortem of the Mission Architect Sunday Special's first rotation Got a lot of loose and disconnected thoughts about how MASS has gone so far. I guess the immediate elephant in the room is that though MASS has shown up on all shards, Excelsior didn't actually run. Only one person showed up and they left once a MSR was announced. It's cemented my decision to not shift the start time for these unless Reunion asks due to being on a different time zone. But it'll be back to Excelsior, especially since I know some non farm AE teams do exist there. Overall? Things have gone well for an event based on a small corner of the game. All last year I was wondering why there wasn't a cycling AE team since there was one pre shutdown. After the big (lack of) Dev Choice discussion and the input given by eyes outside of the AE community, I decided to step up and finally make a plan. We needed something visible and it looks like we got a good start. Indomitable showed up for the first and AE authors collectively showed up for Torchbearer. That gave me the confidence that we could do this. The first few also showed that I might not be able to handle this on a weekly schedule. Thus, the shift to the 1st and 3rd Sunday. As a behind the scenes, the initial plan was: Indomitable 1st, Torchbearer 2nd, Everlasting 3rd, Reunion 4th, and Excelsior and Victory alternating on any 5th Sundays. I quickly found out that plan wasn't going to work. In that, I also see having a regular who can act as a good co lead for things like screenshots and holding the star if you disconnect is invaluable. In running these regularly, I've found that we don't always get two arcs run each meeting. Sometimes the first arc runs long and other times life happens. Yet, it always seems like those who do show up have fun. The "one large + one small/medium arc" setup seems to be working well. And while turnout isn't huge, it's decent. I wonder if name recognition of the team lead plays a part. Indomitable is my main shard, Torchbearer was a bunch of fellow AE writers, and Victory was where I played during retail and I recently joined on a SF. In fact, turnout seems better on smaller shards than the two largest. One special thing that Indomitable's consistent runs allow is playing multipart arcs since people get to keep the arc fresh in their head. I've also found that I greatly prefer running these in the RWZ's AE compared to the Pocket D's AE and will those except for when MASS returns to Excelsior due to just how often the MSR gets run. So...where do we go from here? Well, we probably need to advertise outside the Mission Architect section of the forum if we want more people to join. Been attempting that but more might be needed. Also, probably need to have the next rotation posted ahead of time. On that note: NEXT TIME... The planned times for the next rotation look to be: Indomitable is the 1st Sunday of every month Excelsior is June 15, 2025 Everlasting is July 20, 2025 Torchbearer is August 17, 2025 Reunion is September 21, 2025 Victory is October 19, 2025 2PM EST in the Rikti War Zone (unless otherwise announced).

Thanks for the great run, Victory! Working out when we'll cycle back to this shard.

For today's Mission Architect Sunday Special, we ran: @ZamuelNow's Dhahabu Kingdom and the Indelible Curse of Hate (#60044). Pulp adventure in a parallel world! Since Victory was my home server before shutdown and one player remembered my antics back then, I figured it be a homecoming of sorts if I ran one of my own that existed back then. With this, MASS has completed a run across all shards (with a small asterisk). Need to get my thoughts together for a follow up post about my thoughts on the overall experience and where MASS will go from here. But even before that I gotta say, thanks to everyone who's joined so far!

While I tried to keep base services obvious, I now realize I used the upside down rez ring trick so it might have been missed. It's underneath the pipe in the ceiling in the gym. Had trouble sinking it into the floor in a way that wouldn't get people stuck in the floor when they rezzed in the base so I left the shadow. Winds up working as a water stain. Radical Sewer Zone (SEWER-12045)

Don't know if anyone has tried to do an AE version of these. They would be improved by losing the tutorial aspects but AE can't do any cinematics or special spawn placement. A shame since both feel like they have promise that they don't live up to. Both Twinshot and Dr. Graves' arcs make assumptions of the player character and have characters that can rub you the wrong way. Like, I don't hate Twinshot like so many others here seem to do with her "kiddo" directed to the player character makes me wonder both how old Twinshot is supposed to be and how young did the devs think our characters were. While there's supposed to be a time progression from 1-50, teen heroes are the exception instead of the norm. Honestly, I think perception of Twinshot could shift just by changing kiddo for almost anything else. In playing these two arcs recently, I found that while I found Twinshot slightly more annoying and I've never liked Dillo, I wound up liking Grym. And Flamebeaux has always been entertaining. Dr. Graves' arc has problems with treating villains as brutish and dumb. And I believe I remember the first version was even worse about that. I did find myself liking Omnicore due to the reveal of her connection to Boris the Russian. Not being as stoic as she claims reframes her interactions with the player. Especially since you can bump into her in a later villain arc.

An interesting possibility is that the team members were from South Korea since it would be evening for them. Less interesting would be that they were in a Discord together and not talking in team chat. Who knows.

Yes, actually. I planned on making a new directory of sorts but simply haven't had the time.

Alright, I gotta ask: I've seen a few entries with water that is vertical. How?

After the contest is over, how will Novice bases get categorized in the Tour bases? Separately, how did you get the black void in the Tour base entryways?

I think there's a lot I think the AE story writing community can learn from the base building community. For a while, I've been trying to learn. The first thing is that we're not organized. While the role of Community Rep has been retired, base building has (had?) highly visible members who can communicate with the devs about things the community needs. They also exist to inform the community about things. Perhaps most noteworthy are the base directories. It solves one of the ways where the two communities share an issue--finding player content. AE's search engine is flawed but at least it exists for us. Finding bases to visit requires outside sources, so those are maintained. I had been planning to compile a spreadsheet but hadn't had the time due to all the other AE things I'm working on.

It sounds like you're the last person to blame. I thank you for what you did during your time. And if you ever return--not even as a GM but as player who enjoys CoH--we'll certainly welcome you home.

*leans back in chair* Why not try the arc out and see?

The color cheat sheet is useful if you're trying to match things like villainous red lightning, considering we can't customize the colors of our customs' powers:

Hey! I don't know how many of you visit the Mission Architect section of the forums but I'm putting a version of the Mission Architect Sunday Special thread here for awareness and any questions people might have. MASS is a story focused AE event that cycles through the various shards. The first for Victory will be Sunday, May 18 at 2-4 PM EST in Pocket D. Usually it meets in the RWZ but trying something different this time.

For today's Mission Architect Sunday Special, we ran: @cranebump's Of Guns and Asa Ronan (41018). Villainous crime on the Family's dime! @Darmian's Spirals: Part One (55109). A Resistance mystery goldside! Indomitable went the distance with two beefy arcs. The team also got to provide realtime feedback for the author during play. We also got to see a way of handling contact exit text in a way the whole team can view it. We'll see if any new tips and tricks are revealed because... NEXT TIME... MASS has its first run on Victory on May 18. After Victory, MASS will have completed a rotation of the shards!

One of the most fascinating things about base building is the awareness of space. Assuming the base is for an SG of only around 10 people or less, you technically don't need a massive amount of space but some options require more or less space than you realize. I'll likely have more thoughts after I start touring others and after judging is over.

Your character name: Maximum Mutant Your Global handle: @ZamuelNow Are you the owner: Yes Are you the builder: Yes Your base’s name: Radical Sewer Zone The shard it is located on: Indomitable The passcode for entry: SEWER-12045 The category your base is entering under: Novice Contributing builders’ names or Global handles: N/A Any additional information you wish the judges to know beforehand: While Prestige is no longer active, I still opted to design a base using only the default plot size. Both for challenge and for minimalism, while having more going on than just the single room style of base building. It's origin themed and "Mutant" was the most clear idea I had. There were two major inspirations for the style of the base but I also want it to stand on it's own. Some things I couldn't pull off but I'm mostly satisfied with the workarounds.