ZamuelNow

While I posted the 'why', another thread here helped me realize I didn't do a good job expressing the 'what' of the arcs we played. So... The first was @Valeyard's Heart of Words Part One (25906). A psionic mystery in Paragon City! The second was @Clairvoyance's Welcome to the Arachnos Weather Machine Division! (60657). Where Nemesis failed, you (might) succeed! And for the preliminary test before the official first MASS: We ran @JiroIto's On The Claw-Tipped Wings of Betrayal (43524). A high level arc in Cimerora!

By some weird fluke, Synapse is currently my most run TF on Homecoming. While not mindblowing, I've never had a bad time on one. While my kneejerk reaction is asking what server the OP played on, I think the more overt issue is that it was played on a Monday. I'd think that the people most aggressive about trying to speed run would be on the first and last days.

You confuse me. I feel almost like I tripped over some already existing squabble.

Today's run on Indomitable was a success. Torch, you're next week.

Thanks to all who were able to show up. Updated the thread over in the Mission Architect section in case anyone who couldn't show up but would like to try the arcs we ran. Thanks to Glacier Peak for the screenshot.

We just concluded the inaugural Mission Architect Sunday Special! Everyone had fun and just what exciting arcs were run today? First up was Heart of Words Part One by @Valeyard ( @LordRassilon on the forums). I chose this one specifically since the author was the one other person I knew that had public AE teaming and it only seemed right to include it in the first MASS. We followed that up with Welcome to the Arachnos Weather Machine Division! by @Clairvoyance. A tonal difference, an alignment difference, and slightly shorter, this gave us the ability to finish two arcs (plus discussion and brief AFKs) by 4PM to keep things freed up for other events that were starting in the afternoon. Thanks to everyone who showed up! NEXT WEEK... MASS heads to Torchbearer! I know there's a lot of AE authors there so I look forward to seeing how that changes things.

I have one small addition to that: It can affect your story progression. This is optional and 99% blueside only but what you fight is a mechanical effect on the game.

This is today in under an hour! While I have the standard pre new event jitters, I think this will go well.

Outside of my standard "haven't run this since Live" embarrassment, had a lot of fun today.

Oh, it's simple (might need to make a dedicated guide). You know how missions are split into two pages in the editor? On the first page in the optional Mission Parameters tab is the setting for the minimum and maximum level of the mission. This is set per mission so five mission arc requires doing this 5 times.

Just ran Part One. Great work and the polish really shows. Double checking and a lot came down to just the contact's word choice so it just comes down to two suggestions and two nitpicky errors. The first suggestion is to just narrow the arcs range to 40-54 to signal that it's a high level arc but that's mostly pretty obvious. The second, which may be for future arcs as opposed to this one due to the work it would take, would be to use exit pop ups so that people who aren't the team leader can get more of the story. On the tiny number of nitpicks: Mission 1 intro My team and I scour the Earth for arcane relics keeping them out of the hands of the unworthy, and we also fight to maintain Cosmic Balance. --It feels like there should be a comma between relics and keeping. Yet, it also feels like "and we also fight to maintain Cosmic Balance." This can probably be chalked up to dialogue, though. Mission 5 I was going to say, "Penelope Yin doesn't have a bio" but then I realized Penny's a custom. As of now, the Freedom Phalanx version of her exists in AE but I don't think she was when this was original published.

While Dev's Choice is obviously awarded by the developers and mods, I'm curious about something: Just what would people use as criteria if they were the ones awarding Dev's Choice status?

I'd love to see such an AMA since it's actually been really insightful when we get to read their thought processes on design and decisions. The worry is the bad feeling I've seen some try to stir up in some of those threads (though mostly older threads, admittedly).

A ton of AE badges were removed in I15 and generally it made sense and was healthier for the system. Many relied on things wholly outside the player's control and were thus either unable to be obtained or risked people gaming the system. However, one badge that I think should return is the Hardcore Gamer badge. What AE needs is more people playing the arcs that are there. The badge might need lowering from 100 arcs played to 50 since 100 might be a bit too much to ask.

IN TWO DAYS (*said like a movie announcer*) we'll have the first Mission Architect Sunday Special! I hope someone there has a better computer than me so some screenshots of the events of the arcs can be taken.

As others have said, an excellent arc. Well polished in a way that I see very few problems and they're really just nitpicks. One overall is that the level ranges technically aren't consistent but arc fares better than most in that it's not a huge level range so it avoids the problems of lowbies facing high level enemies or high level characters swapping between losing powers and retoggling in later missions. In Mission 3, you use a 5th Column base instead a Council base as mentioned in a clue. Map layout was fine and one faction split from the other, so this just nitpicking. The 'Explosives' clue in Mission 4 will spawn after the first glowie, not the last, so you may or may not choose to adjust it reflecting that. Mission 4 outro We don't need to dwell on that, old man. Now, let's both get some rest --Police Woman already mentioned this one but the sentence is missing a period. Only since you asked:

It's a New Year...which means it's time to set resolutions that you may or may not succeed in! Does anyone have big plans with Mission Architect in 2025? I've got three big schemes but the only one I'll be open about is the Mission Architect Sunday Special, which will have it's start on Sunday. Trying to get it to lead to a successful recurring event.

Make the "AE" logo available as a chest symbol. Was a little surprised not to see it with all the other faction logos unless I'm overlooking it.

I might be able to join with Technician Hugo - Arsenal/FF Controller. I hate that I missed so many in the later part of the year.

Ah, thank you. Was looking for the hero one but I have a villain who can flashback the other. For the villain one, are all the patron arcs in Ouro? I don't remember if I ran his for the unlock (even though I did choose Black Scorpion patron pool).

Since I'm in the level range, I've been fighting Nemesis. Who gives the mission in the Shadow Shard with the Nemesis base? Does the base exist in the zone? Tried searching the wiki but I must be overlooking it.

Did you republish? The arc ID isn't 65481. You don't need to delete your arc to make edits. Doing so wipes out prior ratings. However, I must commend you since--as other's have noticed--you learned you can use the navigation bar to lie to the player about the actual objectives. You need to be careful with this since it can throw the player off if done wrong. There's also the issue that though the mission assumes the player is smart, it treats the character as dumb which is a sore point with redside missions. But as long as the player gets it and acknowledges the meta angle, it's fine. On a more line by line breakdown: Forager lacks a bio. While a bio might give him away, not having one at all seems unfinished. Most won't check, admittedly. Mission 1's Patrol dialogue actually worked? Don't know if it's just for this map, the devs finally fixed a bug that been here a while, or something else is going on. Nav bar is somewhat confusing, at first. Considering what's going on, I'd use a clue to imply radio text. Perhaps duplicating Officer Daniels' radio chatter using the same font size and colors. It might defuse some of the player frustration with dealing with an outdoor map. Mission 2 contact text "Park in Back." 'Back' should be lowercase. Mission 2 uses a Mercy Island map, though the visuals are fine in the grand scheme of things. So...Mission 3's ambushes. While "it makes sense" for the narrative, you should never do ambushes on 75%, 50%, AND 25% health on a level 10 and below mission. Unless it's in Praetoria and even then that's a situation where you should err on the side of doing better than Paragon Studios. Most low level characters can't handle that. I played a Stalker within the level range and was able to partially circumvent this with burst damage. Still died, though. If you don't kill the boss group before the ambush arrives, there a real chance that the mission can't be completed.

Meant to but forgot to comment on this thread earlier. While I have some similar concerns as some others with uncontrolled splitting, this does seem like a well though out idea. Splitting seems like it would be more feasible if it was limited to the T3 (mirroring the splitting when a slime or single cell organism gets too large) or was attached to a power like a replacement for Elemental Infusion. And Elemental Infusion is its own cool thing that would be a shame to lose. Noting the customization concerns @TygerDarkstorm brought up with Elemental Infusion, there's one minor issue not mentioned and one easy overall fix. The minor issue is that the suggested electricity colors don't match the game defaults (blue for heroes and red for villains). But the actual fix would be a slight shift in thought. Rather than base the element on the color and prevent customization, have it place an aura on the pet based on individual powers in armor sets.

What I find interesting is that style of play can really skew this list. For instance, I always rated Air Superiority pretty highly on melee characters for the control it offers. Especially if the actual travel power taken isn't Fly itself.

What level are you trying to build them for? What are you using to test? How many enemies are you trying to build?