I'm very curious to hear more about how this system is working out.  I know that Ryzom tried something like this briefly before going bankrupt in their previous incarnation.  But it didn't do very well, and wasn't as robust as what NCSoft seems to be offering.  Any useful information on the system and how it's affecting the game would be appreciated!  Here are a few specific questions I had in mind:

1.  Are the missions able to be made and played at early levels, or only for high-level characters?

2.  Are the rewards given comparable or better than the pre-existing game missions?

3.  Is the system intuitive enough to use without reading a novel of information?

4.  Does there seem to be much of a difference betweem player-made missions and those already there?  New locations, items, abilites, anything new?

I haven't played CoX in over a year, but this was tempting me to give it another go depending on whether this new system is a success or a broken leg.  Thanks!

Afaik from friends the system is fairly ok not amazing, it may retain exsisting players but thats all its good for.  Its still the same grind X mission no matter how you dress it up.

Originally posted by Wicoa

Afaik from friends the system is fairly ok not amazing, it may retain exsisting players but thats all its good for.  Its still the same grind X mission no matter how you dress it up.

No its not grinding the same missions. Its new missions with new groups of NPCs and to be honest you can now run a character from 1-50 without leaving the mission architect building. Give it couple more months and you can do it with multiple characters and not run the same mission twice.

 Is there a trial where players can access those new missions or the architect system?

Originally posted by brihtwulf

 I'm very curious to hear more about how this system is working out.  I know that Ryzom tried something like this briefly before going bankrupt in their previous incarnation.  But it didn't do very well, and wasn't as robust as what NCSoft seems to be offering.  Any useful information on the system and how it's affecting the game would be appreciated!  Here are a few specific questions I had in mind:

1.  Are the missions able to be made and played at early levels, or only for high-level characters?

2.  Are the rewards given comparable or better than the pre-existing game missions?

3.  Is the system intuitive enough to use without reading a novel of information?

4.  Does there seem to be much of a difference betweem player-made missions and those already there?  New locations, items, abilites, anything new?

I haven't played CoX in over a year, but this was tempting me to give it another go depending on whether this new system is a success or a broken leg.  Thanks!

 

1) The missions can be any level or difficulty depending on the maker.  Whether the author has specified the difficulty accurately is another issue but they could make a mish for levels 1-54 if they wanted.  Keep in mind players can basically make a villain groups that are far harder than the normal Story arc one if they want.  You could concievably make missions with only bosses spawning and the bosses could have full power sets for both a primary and secndary.  Or they can use the standard villain groups already available.  The missions follow the Flashback/TF paradigm, so what you will probably find is that people will recruit for MA groups due to the way the interface locks you in while the mission is up.

2) rewards seem comparable, but I think TF/story arcs stuff where you get merits for the really high demand Invention Origin stuff is a still in demand.  I have not checked if I am getting Enhancement/Salvage srops.  But you get money and xp.  So you could probably do MA missions and nothing else and buy stuff on the Consignment house just fine.

3) the system is pretty easy to use, but it is fairly in depth.  I am pretty sure someone could pick it up easy but it may take time and care to get all parts of your missions.  Anyone willing to take the time should be able to make missions fine.  You only get 3 slots currently.  You can't make mission after mission.

4) Well I think the main difference is that they can make their own villain groups and if they make them at "extreme" difficulty the bosses get the whole shabang for power sets.  You can customize their loks and abilites etc.  For the most part what you put in a mission is what can already exist in a mission, the main difference is that the Devs tend to follow pretty set patterns on how these are combined.  An ambush here or there.  I have played the "Who Cares 2" in whcih the author used ambushes to effectively make "waves" of fights rather than the normal spawn ambush  somewhere at certain point usually while escorting someone.

So kind of yes and no on that one.  Items and maps wise, there are some unlock and such but maps are basically from a limited pallete although you can place objects in particular places I believe.  Also I think you can do something like have Mayhem Mission item destruction mechanics in a map that normal might not have had it etc.  You get tickets when you play mission or others play your missions to unlock some of this stuff.  As far as mission configuration its more about whether a person can combine stuff in a novel way.  As far as real customization its mainly the villain groups you can create whole cloth that have that.

I can't tell you how its affecting the game.  Its too new and so a lot of people are doing it.  It may become what everyone does all the time or it may not.  But its easy to use so there is no reason to think people won't do them whenever they feel like it.

You may be able to play them on a trial account.  I am not real sure on that.  I would suspect you can't create on a trial account but cannot confirm that.

Anyway its not exactly revolutionary.  The missions are clearly still CoX missions.  But you might find some cool stuff.  And in some repsects it may have the potential to aleviate some of the repetitiveness.  Their is a rating system and there are currently easily 100s of mission already made.  I would guess some just plain suck or are annoying or do not play out the way they are described.  But I would guess i fyou played only 5 start mission and there were like say 30 that might be a good bit more interesting than doing radio missions over and over.

Ah one other thing, the interface itself is quite nice.  Looks nice and slick and unlike many CoH stuff it follows a Windows style insterface where you can maximize and minimize and have multiple screen open.  I think you basically say have a map/setting screen and a villain group screen open and switch between the two.

It still follows the CoH patten in some ways.  The villain group creator forces you to go through a certain process flow similar to crating a new character (choose AT, hit next, choose powers, hit next, choose look in costume interface, hit next).  But editing itself has a few different windows that can be open simultnaeously.

I love the architect and it was the main reason I came back to coh a few weeks ago. This is something they could of made a real mess off but instead they put out a decent product. It doesn't have the detail I'd like but with the parameters I'm sure they had to meet (and avoiding easy exploits of it) we are lucky to get anything.

Since it arrived I have quit playing mostly but I'm not a big fan of the missions that come with the game or the grinding (or the farming). The creativity being shown makes it all worth while but while saying that I'd guess 99% of the created missions go for glitz or farming. The other 1 per cent makes it all worth while and I truly hope to master the system in all it's glitchy glory and come up with something decent.

I'm in hog heaven as I really don't have to leave the MA building now to have some fun and use my creativity after years of mmoing (and trying to be creative in the limited set of circumstances allowed. Many will not like it as most don't have any patience or creativity to put in the time to make something amazing and that's fine because there is always the game play and tons of new missions to play. In any event my server has been full the last few nights which luckily isn't a problem since MA is global as it uses your chat handle so you can design on a quiet server when you need or want too.

In any event, like I said, I love it. It's far from perfect and simple by design but it's nice to add to the game instead of just using it like a rented movie.

it's... interesting.

you're not going to be able to put a ton of story, variation (ambush, rescue, destructible object, etc) and customizable foes into a story and get much more than one mission into your arc.

it caps you off at like 100kb.  it looks like each customized mob takes 5 or 6% of that.  so, with a few customized mobs, a little bit of story, and a few variables -- you've used up your allocated space for the arc, on the first mish.

that hasn't stopped me from making the Old Lady Jenkins' Pies series however!

Originally posted by gestalt11

Ah one other thing, the interface itself is quite nice.  Looks nice and slick and unlike many CoH stuff it follows a Windows style insterface where you can maximize and minimize and have multiple screen open.  I think you basically say have a map/setting screen and a villain group screen open and switch between the two.

really? how? I'm having an issue with being able to see the entire interface. I'd appreciate any pointers.

Originally posted by damian7

it's... interesting.

 

you're not going to be able to put a ton of story, variation (ambush, rescue, destructible object, etc) and customizable foes into a story and get much more than one mission into your arc.

 

it caps you off at like 100kb.  it looks like each customized mob takes 5 or 6% of that.  so, with a few customized mobs, a little bit of story, and a few variables -- you've used up your allocated space for the arc, on the first mish.

 

that hasn't stopped me from making the Old Lady Jenkins' Pies series however!

They cap it at 100-110k because of the amount of people in game. It adds up - however, using existing mobs takes almost no space (just text to call that mob) and you can still fit a lot in with a few custom creatures  (3/2/1/1 on minions/lts/bosses/elite or AV seems to work well for most) and there are tricks to minimize how much room (basically use custom creature groups for each arc so they have only the mobs you want) the custom npcs take up.

Memphis_Bill has a good series of tutorials/guides in the Players Guides section on the main boards.

AE has completely revived my interest in CoH.  I'm having a blast making missions and doing other people's missions.

1.  Most missions scale to the player level so you can do them at early levels.  That being said, most are more difficult than dev-made missions so soloing at early levels often requires using Heroic, the lowest difficulty setting.

2. dunno.  I never count xp or influence.  For me the reward is having fun doing the mission.  My rewards have gone way up with AE.

3.  My personal opinion is that the AE interface is NOT intuitive, but others disagree.  It is easy to make a crappy mission.  Making a good one takes a lot of time and patience.   Most player-made missions are crappy.  That's ok, there are more than enough good ones to make it all worth while.

4.  Player-made missions are usually quite different than what the devs did.  If you made it to level 50 you wont see any new places or things.  You will see new enemy groups.  Missions will be structured in unusual ways that are difficult to predict.  Some missions have much more intelligent text-based story elements than the devs ever used.  Other missions are pure silliness or simple xp farms.  The devs had to make bland, generic missions that satisfied everyone.  The players dont.  They make the types of missions THEY enjoy.  The trick is sorting through the thousands of AE missions to find the type that you most enjoy.

Originally posted by Wikkedbowtie

Originally posted by Wicoa

Afaik from friends the system is fairly ok not amazing, it may retain exsisting players but thats all its good for.  Its still the same grind X mission no matter how you dress it up.

 No its not grinding the same missions. Its new missions with new groups of NPCs and to be honest you can now run a character from 1-50 without leaving the mission architect building. Give it couple more months and you can do it with multiple characters and not run the same mission twice.

I think it's worse than grinding the same missions.

I recently returned to CoH just before AE was released. What I've noticed since its release is a situation developing much like those exploitable clicky missions of long ago.

Case in point - I was invited to join one of these AE missions at level 10. The game crashed my machine (a frequent occurrence for some reason) before I could enter the mission. Then I spent almost an hour trying to reconnect to the game (another annoying frequent occurrence). When I got back in my AE group were still going so I went in and joined them for 10 minutes to finish the mission, and made 7 levels.

A level 50 on the team boasted he made 30 million influence in that hour.

Over the last couple of days, there's been a steady increase in the number of people wanting to get into AE missions and a corresponding decrease in people playing regular content. People are learning that AE = fast xp/influence and are abandoning everything else.

AE is severely out of balance with the rest of the game. When the devs have addressed that, then it'll be something they should be applauded for.

On the plus side of things, I've seen broadcasts of players wanting kineticists - a long under-appreciated powerset - on these farming teams. Of course the downside is if they become too popular they'll finally get belted with the nerfbat :(

Originally posted by green13

Originally posted by Wikkedbowtie

Originally posted by Wicoa

Afaik from friends the system is fairly ok not amazing, it may retain exsisting players but thats all its good for.  Its still the same grind X mission no matter how you dress it up.

 No its not grinding the same missions. Its new missions with new groups of NPCs and to be honest you can now run a character from 1-50 without leaving the mission architect building. Give it couple more months and you can do it with multiple characters and not run the same mission twice.

 

I think it's worse than grinding the same missions.

I recently returned to CoH just before AE was released. What I've noticed since its release is a situation developing much like those exploitable clicky missions of long ago.

Case in point - I was invited to join one of these AE missions at level 10. The game crashed my machine (a frequent occurrence for some reason) before I could enter the mission. Then I spent almost an hour trying to reconnect to the game (another annoying frequent occurrence). When I got back in my AE group were still going so I went in and joined them for 10 minutes to finish the mission, and made 7 levels.

A level 50 on the team boasted he made 30 million influence in that hour.

Over the last couple of days, there's been a steady increase in the number of people wanting to get into AE missions and a corresponding decrease in people playing regular content. People are learning that AE = fast xp/influence and are abandoning everything else.

AE is severely out of balance with the rest of the game. When the devs have addressed that, then it'll be something they should be applauded for.

On the plus side of things, I've seen broadcasts of players wanting kineticists - a long under-appreciated powerset - on these farming teams. Of course the downside is if they become too popular they'll finally get belted with the nerfbat :(

Yes there are people making farm missions in AE. Thats why if you find yourself on a team using a farm mission you should report it so that they can remove it. After the mission is completed and you enter the rating it gives you an option to "report for content". When they recieve one of those they look at the arc and remove it if it is exploitable. The person can republish it, but its the same thing as other stuff, if they have to remove Joe Johnson's arc to many times Joe Johnson won't be allowed to play anymore.

what exactly is considered farming?

is it JUST as simple as -- running the same mission over and again? 

there are easily farmed, normal missions ingame.  there's that one mish everyone farms from TV (red side), and any random freak radio mish in PI (two off the top of my head).

why is it ok for the devs to make a "farming" mission; but not players?  I'm curious about the "i'm telling, cuz you're doing something i don't like" mentality.

is it ok, if you make a mission with a light story behind it (i.e. any paper/radio mish ingame); but, not ok if there's not a short paragraph intro, a big bad that says two lines, and a shorter paragraph exit?  because, that's the only difference i've seen between farming a freak radio mish in PI and farming rikti dolls in AE.

Originally posted by damian7

what exactly is considered farming?

 

is it JUST as simple as -- running the same mission over and again? 

there are easily farmed, normal missions ingame.  there's that one mish everyone farms from TV (red side), and any random freak radio mish in PI (two off the top of my head).

why is it ok for the devs to make a "farming" mission; but not players?  I'm curious about the "i'm telling, cuz you're doing something i don't like" mentality.

is it ok, if you make a mission with a light story behind it (i.e. any paper/radio mish ingame); but, not ok if there's not a short paragraph intro, a big bad that says two lines, and a shorter paragraph exit?  because, that's the only difference i've seen between farming a freak radio mish in PI and farming rikti dolls in AE.

Maybe it's the intent behind it?

When the devs write a farm mish, are they thinking "Let's make a farm mish" or are they just write a mission that happens to have a flaw/loophole/quirk that players find and exploit? The player-freated farm missions seem to be the former - missions that are intended to be exploited.

I personally don't enjoy farming. I do it occasionally to help out the SG or coalition or an unaligned friend, but I don't do it for myself. Running the same mish 5 times in a row just isn't fun to me.

Come on damian, the mission in AE that says in the title and the description "ticket farm" Is pretty obvious. Those are the ones I report.

last night i played a dev's choice arc.

3 missions.

first mission, click two glowies/small outdoor map

second mission, click one glowie/small outdoor map

third mission, clicke one glowie and kill an eb/small tech map.

you get a story arc xp bonus for completing this arc.  it's very easily farmable on a solo level.

Originally posted by Wikkedbowtie

Come on damian, the mission in AE that says in the title and the description "ticket farm" Is pretty obvious. Those are the ones I report.

Do you report Fire/Kin that keep a perpetual Demon farm mission?

My opinion on the matter of farming in regards to creativeity and fun in general is that anything you try do to regulate farming will hinder the good stuff.

Farming exists on a large scale already, let people have their freedom.   

I hate to break it to people but almost all MMOs do not have a real economy or market.  They are essentially perpetually printing fake money.  And I know of people who power level guys by door sitting in a matter of hours.

The ship sailed a long time ago and frankly the game works ok still.  Do prices constantly inflate?  Yes.  Does farming contribute to this?  Yes.  But the ship sailed seriously just let people have thier fun. 

Without the freedom to do whatever you please this endeavor of the Mission Architect will lose a lot of its shine.

that's what i'm getting at (again) -- farming is one of those "i don't like it, so i don't want it in MY game" type things.

COH is not a single server game.  if you're honest, and you break it down - there's not many people that DON'T farm (in one fashion or another) this game.

you ever run the ITF? Katie Hannon?  you ever run them MORE than once on the same character?  that's farming.  "oh no, i just enjoy the content".  that's fine, it's not a mutually exclusive situation.

but don't sit there, acting like you don't farm.  honestly - unless you run a character to lvl 50, play it for MAYBE another month, and then shelve it -- you're going to repeat content.  the more you play, the more content you're going to repeat.

 do you have the zoo keeper badge?  how many months/years of normal, non-farming play did it take for you to take out 1,000 rikti monkeys?  same can be said about a LOT of badges needed for accolades.  how about the highest level damage taken/dealt, healing, and debt badges?

i have over a dozen lvl 50s.  odds are, any toon i create - i won't be seeing new content.  what, EXACTLY, is it hurting you that someone else is farming?

you're not going to get those purple drops or those rare procs without 'working' for it.  are you jealous that someone else might get them before you?  you can farm merits to get them.  you can farm tickets to get them.  you can farm influence/infamy to get them.

how are YOU going to farm to get better stuffs for your toons?