Bubbawheat

This is just something that I've been kind of curious in the back of my head for a while now. I'm curious as to how many plays the Dev Choice arcs get. It's hard to track them because they stop showing at 1,000 plays, that's why I need help. The only way for us players to track plays is by tickets awarded. Now it's not an exact science, as people can earn tickets from multiple arcs, not every rate will earn the same amount of tickets (or any in some cases), and there are few authors out there with Dev Choice arcs to help.

What you can do to help - If you are getting any kind of tickets from your arcs, post your unclaimed total here whenever you can. Or if you spend them as soon as you get them, post about how many tickets you've gotten this past week.

I know this might not serve any purpose other than satisfying my curiosity, but maybe others are curious as well.

My current unclaimed tickets
(3/3): 8810
(3/5): 9010
(3/7): 9210
(3/12): 9545
(3/14): 9760

Playing around with effects and layers for my March FArts and came up with this. I like it.

Just check the AE building, it's still there. All it really needs is some more Dev's Choices. I know they're busy, but is it that hard to have a few devs play a few AE arcs in their off time and if it's a good one, Dev Choice it? I think Dev's Choice should be given out more often than Bug Hunter. It's been over a year since they've given one out outside of contests, and it's an easy way to put new solo content that you can get shards on, but only if they're Dev Choice.

Now, if they could just fix the search engine so you can find non-Dev Choice arcs that aren't farms, then we'd be set.

I'm not bothered by changing canon. I am unmotivated by lack of plays, and I can't justify to myself to pay for another slot to make something that maybe 30 people will play (approx number of plays on my most recent arc published in Sept.) Honestly, if I didn't have a Dev's Choice arc that still surprisingly nets me a fair amount of tickets (250 a week more or less) and the occasional positive comment I would have probably dropped the AE a while ago.

It has been nice to see a few new (or old) faces here in the forums, and I have had a few pleasant surprises - a couple random plays on my Matchstick Women arc, including one who played it based on reading the in-game bio of one my Burnt Matchstick tanker on Pinnacle.

Here's those arcs that I suggested in chat earlier:

A Wake for Dead 6 #379160 by Clave Dark 5 - has alternate storytelling and shifting timelines.
Who Dares Wins #454805 by Zaphir and The Most Important Thing - both have a dramatic scene involving loss or sacrifice.
The Cave #459590 by Tangler - the first mission is a well done mostly empty mission, and there's a great ally/hologram effect.

At least they got her good side.. or his... hard to tell sometimes

This is the first time since I started just after Issue 9 where I'm not really excited about anything coming up in this issue.

Here's a second round from me. Don't think I'll do a third though. Nice to have more than one chance.

1. Cupid?! CUPID! I'll show him cupid! Just as soon as he gets out of the building.

2. One side will make you taller. The other side will make you... pass out.

3. Oh yeah, your leaves are much softer inside. Is that a new sap purfume I smell? Shhh... wait, I think I hear someone.

4. "We're members of the Lollipop Guild, and we wish to welcome you to Monkey Land."

5. Did anyone see what happened to the Freak Tank? ... Maybe I shouldn't have put that Stupefy: Chance for Knockback in [Flashfire]

6. (Hey look, it's a) Burnt Matchstick: No, I don't see anything unusual. If you read my bio, I'm blind! And, you know, my head's on fire. If you think it's funny, just take a screenshot and describe it to me later.

P.S. Didn't even catch myself in the pic until just now.

Well if you put it that way, feel free to take a look at any of my arcs, just search for Bubbawheat and they should all come up. Matchstick Women is the one I think is the strongest out of all of them #3369.

Forgot to post this here as well when I finished it... and also doesn't hurt to bring this back to the front page for a bit. As I called it a few posts up, call this a bonus prize for the winning arcs.

Trailer for Golden Age Secret of the Paragon Society.

and as I didn't really spell out what it was above.

Trailer for Talos Vice.

I think I would like to continue these, for the other winners, let me know if it's ok to do one for your arc. It may take a while, but I'll hopefully get them all done.

Hey wait a minute, a couple of those are more than 140 characters. Also, Westin Phipps isn't on Twitter, but @LordRecluse, @EmperorCole, and @Nemesis_CoH all are. Though they haven't tweeted in a while. Must be planning something.

You can also hold page up to rotate the camera.

As a sidenote, VexXxa kindly set up a folder for us to use again this year in the deviantArt group #CityOfHeroes. There's currently a bit of a glitch so you can't submit directly to the F-Art 2011 folder, but you should be able to submit your Jan and Feb entries (including Tartyr's late Feb entry if he so chooses) to an appropriate folder and I will get it moved over there as soon as I can.

And of course, just a reminder to not post any full-view March entries there until after the 21st.

#1: I know I just saw Fusionette go in there for a new costume. Now I just have to wait...
#2: Hey baby, why don't you make yourself comfortable and have a sit right here next to me.
#3: 97, 98, 99, ready or not, here I come!
#4: I heard there was a CC going on here. Guys? ... Guys? Do I have a stain on my cape or something?
#5: Stop calling me **** \/an Dik3!
#6: Crap what happened to the pool!

There is not currently a zero-damage "battle" objective. The current battle objective triggers when the player gets close enough for the enemies to spawn. Which does often mean that the battle is over by the time the player gets there.

Didn't Weezer do this a long time ago?

Thanks for the feedback. Here's my way of looking at it for the moment:

1. The "spirit" of the bonus points is to challenge each artist to make their secret message challenging but not impossible.

2. While this is a competition, it's also for fun, and I'd like to give people the benefit of the doubt for the purposes of "gaming the system" I haven't really seen it happening. Even the couple cases where it might have been happening, the situation was remedied one way or another.

3. At the end of the day, it's just 1 point out of an average of 16-17 being given out per month. Also the points don't have a direct impact on eliminations. I fully expect that almost everyone will get 1 bonus point this month.

4. This is also a way to make it more fun for the voters. Every voter will be allowed to take a guess on every piece. It's up to the individual how much they want to play along, or if they want to scroll down and try to cheat off of other's guesses.

This isn't intended to shut down discussion of the rules entirely. I'm still willing to listen to what others say about it.

edit: just to check, this month, there were 26 voters. While every voter might not guess for every piece, I think many will, so let's say there's an average of about 16 guesses per piece. 25% would be 4, so between 2-4 would fall within the guideline. One other possibility I could see working though is to give the extra point to the last one correctly guessed based on posting order. And if say the first person guesses them all correctly, then no one gets the 2nd point.

Glad to see someone new in the reviewing game. There have been way too few lately. I'd like to ask for a review, but I feel my arcs are currently about where I want them. Good luck, and enjoy!

And here are your results:


(edit: another month, another correction. Above graph is slightly incorrect, numbers below are correct.)

1st place: Lousy Day with 41 votes
2nd place: Christopher Robin with 31 votes
3rd place: Battlewraith with 24 votes
4th place: Darth Delicious with 18 votes
5th place: Henri with 14 votes
6th place: Techbot Alpha with 13 votes
7th place: Airhead with 10 votes
8th place: Defiance Jones with 5 votes

Congratulations to one and all. I think one thing that this month has made pretty clear - a lot of the time it's not always about the technique and detail in your work as it is about the overall concept. Lousy Day's piece might not be the most detailed, but it had one of the best concepts. The same can be said about Darth Delicious's piece - for a black and white sketch it made up for the lack of polish with a strong concept. Just something to think about for future months. And as for the points standings (with a couple adjustments to last month to keep things consistent - awarding CR the 2 bonus points for winning, and adjusting Airhead's early bird points from 5 to 2):



Christopher Robin has 41 points
Lousy Day has 37 points
Battlewraith and Henri have 36 points
Techbot Alpha has 34 points
Airhead has 32 points
Defiance Jones has 27 points
Darth Delicious has 17 points
Tartyrsause has 16 points

Voting is now closed. Thanks for all the votes, I hope to have the results ready a little bit later tonight. Or tomorrow morning at the latest.

After being taken through fire and ice, and with plenty of drama to boot, it's time to quiet things down and send out a secret message.

March's Theme is Secret Messages

Rules


All types of visual art are acceptable for this month's theme. Screenshot manipulations, sketches, graphic design, etc. So long as they incorporate this month's theme into the work. See #4 for more details.

1. Use City of Heroes/Villains Characters- This is, afterall, a CoX Fan Art competition, so I expect you guys to keep that in mind. If there's nothing relating to City of Heroes/Villains in your entry, you will be disqualified.

2. Keep It PG-13- All entries this month must be postable to these boards without a 2 click.

3. Deadlines- All entries MUST be submitted by Monday March 28th by Midnight Eastern US time. Anyone participating who DOES NOT have an active account on these boards may note me via deviantArt at Bubbawheat. Voting will begin by Tuesday, March 29th, held here on the CoH boards. The pieces that I put up for a vote have been personally verified by me, so if you disagree with their qualifications, please take it up with me rather than the artists.

4. This month's theme is Secret Messages, and to qualify for this theme, your entry must include a secret message. You can create this secret message any way you see fit, whether it is a rebus, small print hidden in the details, body shapes that suggest a hidden picture, even something involving the title of the piece.

5. Secret submissions - to get into the spirit of this month's theme, I ask that you do not submit your full piece until after March 21st. You may post a teaser here in this thread that does not include any part of the message. You can then send me the full image by e-mail (my screen name @ msn.com), or PM me a link to an image hosting site (not deviantArt, as most people here frequent that site). Include what the secret message and how to find it in your message to me. I can also create your teaser image for you if you ask when submitting your full piece to me.

6. This is the last month for open submissions. Anyone is still allowed to enter.

7. There will be no eliminations until June. Each month artists will accumulate points that will be used to help avoid elimination, or grant other benefits. There will be one chance for one artist to win their way in (or back) to the contest in August.

8. Points- Entry points: Artists gain 10 points each month where they submit a piece. Any artist not submitting a piece will be disqualified.
Early bird points: Artists gain an additional 2 points each month where they submit a "finished" piece before the 15th of the month - for this month, the finished piece should be submitted to me via PM or e-mail to qualify for the early bird points. Finished pieces can still be modified, but any major additions after the 15th will negate the early bird points. Major additions include adding color, or adding an elaborate background.
Place points: After voting, each artist will gain points based on how they place in the final standings. 1st place gains 10 points (plus 2 bonus points for winning), 2nd gains 9, 3rd gains 8, etc. Ties each gain the amount of points for that place. Places after 10th gain 0 points.
Bonus points: If voters are correctly able to interpret your secret message, you get 1 point (total, not per person). If at least 2 people, and less than 25% of people correctly guess the message, you get 2 points. This does not stack with the 1 point for correctly guessing this message. In other words, you get an extra point if you make it hard enough that most people can't find it, but not so hard that nobody finds it.

9. Prizes- The artist with the most votes each month will receive 10 million inf sent to them through in game E-mail. The overall winner of the year will receive 50 million. Thanks to Draggynn for his donation to the prize fund.

10. Uses for points: These may be adjusted slightly before June:
15 points: Head Start - find out the next month's theme in advance.
25 points: A Little More Time - Allows an entry to be submitted and/or modified up to 2 days after the deadline. No adjustments will be made for any votes already cast if applicable.
30 points: Overruled! - If your piece is judged as not being within theme, you can overrule the judgement and have your piece placed in the voting thread anyway (This cannot overrule rules #1 or #2)
40 points: Immunity - Grants you immunity from elimination for that month - must be declared before voting begins, and can be declared in private. The top 3 based on votes cannot be eliminated due to a large number of immunity buys.
70 points: Saved - Also grants you immunity from elimination for that month but can be declared after voting is over. You can also declare it before voting begins to avoid elimination due to non-entry.