What would be the most annoying thing to find in an AE mission?

[PartyKake]

41 minutes ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

your mom

*cries and runs away*

*aggroes the entire map*

*mission fails*

[The Witchfire]

On 8/7/2025 at 10:50 PM, Darmian said:

Well, lots of things.  The thing that most annoys me is SFMAs that use Fire Farm NPCs.  Your average non Fire Farmer isn't built to take that much fire damage so it's a PITA when you run into mobs and mobs of them.

 

On a more comedic note, when I was writing my first AE arc (Dark Deeds in Galaxy City: Part One), I had given one mob of enemies Beam Rifle and Force Field.  A beautiful combo you'd think.  Ah, not so fast!  Myself and my two test mates ran it and we were bounced around the room with Repulsion, could barely land a hit on anything and eventually PINNED TO THE CEILING AND BEAM RIFLED TO DEATH.

 

So.

Force Field was swapped out for Time Manipulation.  Yeah, layered Distortion Fields can SLOW things down, but it was better than the test version!  Be thankful none of you ever saw it.

 

 

 

I can do you one almost as bad, LOL.  Back in the Live days, i made a mision tailored to my SG, based on DC's "Darkest Night" storyline.  Gave all the returned to life "villains" dark melee and regeneration...

 

BAD things man, bad things.  The whole SG got quickly and severely beat down multiple times before we gave up on the idea, LOL

Edited August 13 by The Witchfire
spelling

[The Witchfire]

On a more serious note...  I'm newly returned so i didn't realize the fire farm missions were such an issue.  Maybe the devs could set up a choice window at the start of opening up the AE interface to choose farm or story content.

 

Yeah, I know the search options SHOULD help there, but let's face it, people are lazy.

[Skyhawke]

Hammidon...but he's a giant poo and the mitos are corn and peanuts. 💩

Edited August 13 by Skyhawke

[mechahamham]

On 8/13/2025 at 6:20 AM, The Witchfire said:

On a more serious note...  I'm newly returned so i didn't realize the fire farm missions were such an issue.  Maybe the devs could set up a choice window at the start of opening up the AE interface to choose farm or story content.

 

Yeah, I know the search options SHOULD help there, but let's face it, people are lazy.

 

I'd love if they'd do this, or choose one AE building on each side to be the 'farm' AE, and require all farm content to be hosted there rather than the other AE buildings.

 

The big problem with this is that the HC devs have never come out and said, 'Yeah, farming is okay if you're not exploiting bugs,' at least so far as I know. In this state, they could theoretically still ban farming if they felt it was necessary... and they have made pretty serious nerfs in the past that were pretty squarely targeted at farmers. The 'no double influence for having exp shut off' thing comes to mind.

 

If they DO require players to formally flag their arcs as farms, that requires them to either implicitly or explicitly acknowledge farming.

 

I think that the farmers would start screaming bloody murder about that... but people have already proven that they'll scream bloody murder about feature additions because those additions remove an old, possibly buggy behavior.

 

As the situation sits, the entirety of Mission Architect has fallen victim to the Tragedy of the Commons. It's SO hard to find arcs, even if you remember their content, that those arcs might as well not exist. There are only farms.

Edited Monday at 03:12 AM by mechahamham
Clarity.

[RikOz]

I entered one AE mission where I gave up after only two rooms because almost every spawn included an Electric Armor lieutenant who was already in Power Surge form before I even attacked them. Just (mostly) untouchable balls of lightning standing around waiting for me.

 

Not sure if that was intentional on the part of the author or not.

[Xalon]

A professionally created mission or story arc.

 

 

I don't have a long experience in running AE missions, but those that I have run seem a bit off. Once I've repeated the professional content enough, then I can see myself going to AE and doing more content there. However, I don't necessarily feel like anything from AE is actually "content" because its watered down and made by amateur players. Not to be too harsh. 

 

What the devs use to create missions seems to be more robust than anything players have access to in AE. Sure, a lot of the options and systems are shared, but it will always be inferior to what can be created using the actual software the devs used/use. 

 

 

I don't want to feel this way because more content is always great, but from what I have seen, even the highest rating AE content doesn't feel like it's as good as real content.

I know a lot of players use AE because they want to rush and powerlevel or grind or whatever else they decide to do. But can anyone recommend a mission or two on AE that gives the most robust experience possible for an AE mission?  No farming missions. If I feel I have to do farming, then I definitely need a big break from the game. I never want to feel like I have to rush and usually feel more like I should slow down lol. 

 

I appreciate it. Thanks.

[cranebump]

1 hour ago, Xalon said:

But can anyone recommend a mission or two on AE that gives the most robust experience possible for an AE mission? 

Go to the AE part of the boards. There are reviews and recs there.

 

The Devs DO have better tools. But I’d put some of the writing and arcs in AE up there with anything they’ve done (and a lot of the AE stuff is at least on par with the legacy arcs from ye olde days). Further, they’re doing it without all the fancy widgets, which is pretty impressive (more so, if you’ve ever tried designing anything yourself — then you truly know how hard that can be).

Edited Tuesday at 01:42 AM by cranebump

[Snokle]

On 8/7/2025 at 7:19 PM, Luminara said:

@Snarky leg-humping people for inf*.

 

I mean the first time I logged in from a six month break I saw Snarky pawning for money. So the world is right.

 

He should be the AE Avatar now.

[sponazgul]

3 hours ago, Xalon said:

A professionally created mission or story arc.

 

 

I don't have a long experience in running AE missions, but those that I have run seem a bit off. Once I've repeated the professional content enough, then I can see myself going to AE and doing more content there. However, I don't necessarily feel like anything from AE is actually "content" because its watered down and made by amateur players. Not to be too harsh. 

 

What the devs use to create missions seems to be more robust than anything players have access to in AE. Sure, a lot of the options and systems are shared, but it will always be inferior to what can be created using the actual software the devs used/use. 

 

 

I don't want to feel this way because more content is always great, but from what I have seen, even the highest rating AE content doesn't feel like it's as good as real content.

I know a lot of players use AE because they want to rush and powerlevel or grind or whatever else they decide to do. But can anyone recommend a mission or two on AE that gives the most robust experience possible for an AE mission?  No farming missions. If I feel I have to do farming, then I definitely need a big break from the game. I never want to feel like I have to rush and usually feel more like I should slow down lol. 

 

I appreciate it. Thanks.

Definitely go to the Mission Architect section of the forum. You’ll find story arcs being advertised, some being reviewed, some looking for feedback. There is a lot of charm to be found.

[PartyKake]

When making ae arcs, I tended to gravitate to one of two things: 

1. It's an arc that explains a character name and backstory. (example: the missions I made to explain Wall of Blossoms)

2. It's lighthearted silliness and a quick source of entertainment. (example: SAVE THE SERVER, a mission where you save the server from THUGS YO)

[Xalon]

Very cool. I guess I've come across the bad ones. I'll take a look at forum section and spend more time trying them out. Thanks for the tips.

[DoctorDitko]

Smugly entitled door-sitters.

[PartyKake]

On 9/9/2025 at 7:48 PM, DoctorDitko said:

Smugly entitled door-sitters.

How could anyone even do that?

Like is it part of their backstory?

 

That's like being a hyper mega Karen in real life. Those people just boggle my mind. 

They've got to believe that there's a camera on them at all times and they have to act out the most bizarre scenarios.

 

Have you actually encountered such a person before? Or is this just like something you encountered from people in other games?

[srmalloy]

16 hours ago, PartyKake said:

Have you actually encountered such a person before? Or is this just like something you encountered from people in other games?

Back on Live, I was working on a story arc in AE, and had gone out of the Quiet Room to the main floor to test the mission I'd just finished, when someone sent me a tell out of the blue asking me to invite them to my farm, and when I tried to explain that I was testing a storyline mission, not a farm, they responded that if I wasn't running farms, I shouldn't be in the AE, and I had to have a full team for the best rewards, so I should be inviting them. I responded with something like 'go find someone who believes that bullshit', put them on ignore, and logged out. 

[Darmian]

51 minutes ago, srmalloy said:

Back on Live, I was working on a story arc in AE, and had gone out of the Quiet Room to the main floor to test the mission I'd just finished, when someone sent me a tell out of the blue asking me to invite them to my farm, and when I tried to explain that I was testing a storyline mission, not a farm, they responded that if I wasn't running farms, I shouldn't be in the AE, and I had to have a full team for the best rewards, so I should be inviting them. I responded with something like 'go find someone who believes that bullshit', put them on ignore, and logged out. 

Some people!  Grr!

 

Also: Note to self.  Write an AE that is all about clicking boxes full of produce to take to the Market.  No enemies, just friendly farmer folk.  Call it BEST FARM EVAH.

 

 

[PartyKake]

4 hours ago, srmalloy said:

Back on Live, I was working on a story arc in AE, and had gone out of the Quiet Room to the main floor to test the mission I'd just finished, when someone sent me a tell out of the blue asking me to invite them to my farm, and when I tried to explain that I was testing a storyline mission, not a farm, they responded that if I wasn't running farms, I shouldn't be in the AE, and I had to have a full team for the best rewards, so I should be inviting them. I responded with something like 'go find someone who believes that bullshit', put them on ignore, and logged out. 

wow.

I think I would have called them out in general chat and told everyone that someone's child was lost in the ae section.

[Solarverse]

People who beg to be power leveled. It's even worse if they end the begging with a stupid f**king smiley face. As if that's really going to help their cause...