Bubbawheat

Made lots of changes to A Clone of Your Own? Based on player feedback, especially thanks to the MA Arc club. If you liked it and have an hour, play it again and tell me how I did. Or if you haven't played it yet, give it a shot!

Welcome to all the new members, I'm still glad to see this is taking off. It's interesting to see how many different people look at the same arc in different ways, and some people like things that others dislike. Let's keep it going!

Also, I went through the latest round of plays and promoted some more people to silver level for their third play. Congratulations to myself, Necrotech Master, Hero Prime, and Paladin. If you would like a specific level range for your free random silver recipe ticket roll, PM or global /tell me with your request and I will do my best to accommodate. Otherwise, I'll send you a level 50. Thanks for all the support!

I might try and get one of these going myself tonight. For a change of pace...

Sea Foam Leviathan

Sea Foam Leviathan if that color isn't easy to read on those silly blue hero-side themed boards. Level 25+ in Sharkhead. Showing some villain love tonight. Around 8pm EST-ish?

Edited first post to add a couple more things, and links.

Since you're on Deviant Art, you can just show the display images from there and they will already be in a nice forum-friendly size. Then include the link to dA and they can click download to see the original size.

Nice stuff by the way, been keeping an eye on it.

Well, I'm going to go ahead and kick things off since I finished up the short arcs I hadn't played in a bit. You can always vote one category at a time, and short arcs are a great place to start.

Short Arcs

1st choice: Talos Vice
2nd choice: Murders in the RWZ Morgue

I think I understand what the problem is: You can't use test mode on published arcs. You have to edit, then save a copy, and test that local copy.

Coincidentally, I just played this arc last night, the only problems I had is that I had a few problems finding some of the chained objectives with all the little nooks and crannies of the Vanguard base. The end of the mission is a little bit confusing at first as well - SPOILERSI know the monkey did it, and I know the monkey belonged to a good Rikti diplomat, but it wasn't clear to me if it was set loose on purpose or if it was an accident. If it was accidental, there could be a few extra details so you can piece that bit together. But it's a really great single mission investigation. My twitter notes aka summary is below:

#CoHMA Playing Murders in the RWZ Morgue # 452144 by @FredrikSvanberg Nominated for Player's Choice Best Short Arc
#CoHMA Contact is Agent G from Faultline.
#CoHMA M1: Gaussian called in Longbow to investigate a couple murders in the Vanguard base when Rikti attacked. I'm to go get the culprit.
#CoHMA M1: I get into the first room and there's just a couple longbow and the two bodies ready for examination.
#CoHMA M1: The first body was attacked by an energy blade, the second, strangled by somewhat non-human looking hands.
#CoHMA M1: Adolphe (the suspect) claims he was set up by Longbow to make Vanguard look bad and wants me to find the real culprit.
#CoHMA M1: I found hints of some intelligent animal who could use an energy scalpel.
#CoHMA M1: The Vanguard base has a lot more nooks and crannies than I realized (P.S. the invention tables actually work in the AE)
#CoHMA M1: I found the real culprit - a Rikti Monkey (and not the farmable one) with blood all over its hands.
#CoHMA M1: I returned the pet to its owner... who was originally outraged when Vanguard called him a spy, then was happy to see his monkey.
#CoHMA M1: I know that the monkey committed the murders, but unsure if it was an accident or a conspiracy?
#CoHMA M1: DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY!!! Agent G's annoyed that I found the real threat, and he can't use it to his advantage at all. Shame.

Thanks for all the plays everyone, hopefully I'll be able to make another pass this next week or two to help tie up loose ends (one of the problems of my style of editing - lots of little edits). And congrats for another member that's made it to silver level - Coulomb2. Send me a global /tell with the level range for your silver recipe ticket roll. Also, if you want one of your arcs to be included in this club, be sure to post it here.

And now this week's random roll came up with:

Arc Info: The Murders in the RWZ Morgue #452144 by @FredrikSvanberg
Missions: 1
Level Range: 35+
Description: There has been a murder in the Vanguard base and Longbow needs your help to catch the killer.

Note: this arc is also up for this year's Player's Choice Awards. They're short arcs, check the others out too and vote for your favorite: http://tinyurl.com/PlayerChoiceVote

Arcs that Should be Inactive

Problem: There are thousands of arcs in the system that are mistakes, exploit farms that have been fixed, test arcs that serve no purpose, arcs that became bugged from a patch and haven't been updated.

Solution: There should be a way to hide these arcs from view. Either globally, or on an individual basis. The default should be to hide "work in progress" arcs.

The Ratings System

The Star System

Problem: The Star Rating system just doesn't work the way it's intended. A 1-star rate is many times more powerful than a 5 star rate, especially combined with the low overall play volume.

Solution:

Add a different method of calculating the final star rating that is more accurate for lower total rates. Something that gives a single 1-star much less, or at least equal power to a single 5-star.

Change the rating system. Many popular sites like YouTube and Facebook have switched to a like/dislike, or even just like. This would solve a lot of the ratings problems, including the sorting problem. The best way would seem to be to convert all 3, 4, and 5 star to "like" or "thumbs up", and either get rid of, or convert all 1 and 2 stars to "dislike" or "thumbs down".

Arc Slots

Is Eight Enough?

Problem: In a few cases, often for some of the best authors in the community, eight slots is not enough arcs over the course of a couple years. And the other methods of getting a new slot is extremely few and far between.

Solution:

Allow a higher maximum for arc slots. Is there a reason to limit it to eight?

Allow other methods of gaining new slots above the maximum. A new vet reward, similar to character slots. 1 or 2 new arc slots a year? Lower the requirements of Hall of Fame to something more accurate to current play volume?

The User Interface

The search tool, or how to find the arcs you want to play.

problem: When you try to search for the kind of arc you want to play, there are too many arcs that you don't want to play at all that show up. And arcs with 5 or less 5-stars show up much higher than arcs with a couple hundred votes at 4-stars.

solutions:

*Allow players to check a box to hide an arc from view - this helps repeated searches to avoid searching through the same bad arcs over and over to try and find the good ones.

*Adjust the display mode. More plays should be more important than a higher average. i.e. 500 4-stars is more significant than 2 5-stars.

The Front Page, or where most players find arcs to play.

The Problem: The front page hasn't changed in almost a year, but that is what most players see when they first load up the AE. Also, a front page arc gets a significant number of more plays than any other arc.

Solutions:

Tabbing: Add tabs to the front page for the guest arcs, dev choice arcs, and hall of fame arcs so they're not automatically shown on the front page.

Alternate Sorting: Change the sort order on the front page to only show maybe 3 guest author arcs, 3 dev choice, 3 hall of fame, 3 5-star arcs, and 3 random arcs. Or anything else that allows the front page to be much less static.

This is attempted to be a complete list of the major problems affect the Mission Architect and how it relates to both players and authors.

The User Interface

The search tool
or why is it so hard to find the good arcs you want to play?

The front page
or why do the same 15 arcs get the most visible spot for over a year?

Arcs that should be inactive
or why do we have to wade through junk to find the gems?

Availability of all mission text
or why can't we all see the whole story?

Arc Slots

Is eight enough?
or why are we penalized for being a prolific author?

The Ratings System

Are Star Ratings the best way
or why is a 1-star five times more important than a 5-star?

The Betrayal System

*Bug - Doesn't always do what you want it to

So how long does the MA have to have been around to get a legendary forumite for it?

Honest question about A Clone of Your Own?

In an arc about cloning, with a bunch of clones in it, is it out of place for Dr. Mephit's lab to have a bunch of his own lieutenant-level clones running around without giving them any specific dialog?

Just wanted to give a quick mention because I went back through the thread and upgraded several members to Silver Level Members. A big thank you and congratulations to Dalghyrn - hope your hand gets better soon, but glad you've already done more than just two arcs a month, FredrikSvanberg, Hero Prime, and Tubbius. Monday I will be making another roll at random.org, and you will each have double the chance for your arc to be picked over the Bronze level members.

Also, I decided to add just a little bonus if you would care to accept it - a free silver ticket recipe roll on me (not bragging, but I have more tickets than I know what to do with). Just send me an in-game global /tell with your preferred level range and I'll send it to you through gleemail.

It could also be the fact that discussing prices for art commissions are a no-no, which could include in-game prices as well as real world prices.

Once you publish an arc, it remains playable until it is:

1) unpublished by the author
2) removed by a GM for content
3) broken by a patch by a new bug (but you can still search for it and attempt to play it)

Oh wow, very nice stuff here. Welcome back! Feel free to use any of my Burnt Matchsticks (see sig), I need an excuse to update that thread.

Will be bringing someone besides Matchstick tonight if I don't get pulled away for cleaning. Crystal (Stone) Melee is very tron-themed.

Happy Birthday!

Rules For Voting

• You may vote in any combination of categories.
• Each category vote *must* contain two arcs, a first choice and a second choice. A vote with only one arc listed will not be counted.
• Each first choice vote counts as 2 points, and each second choice vote counts as 1 point.
• Finalists may choose to cast their vote for a single arc in their category, including their own arc, which will count as 1 point. Finalists may vote in other categories as normal.
• This thread will be open for voting through January 3rd, this should allow as many of the arcs to be played through as possible.
• Thank you again to all of the other judges that offered their help, even though they weren't all needed: Wrong Number, Eva Destruction, FredrikSvanberg, MrCaptainMan, ArrowRose, Airhead, and GlaziusF.
• You may use the tinyurl http://tinyurl.com/PlayersChoiceVote to link to this thread.

Prizes

• Each category winner will receive 200 million inf sent to them through global e-mail
• A costume code of their choice
• And a special forum title.
• They will have 30 days to claim their prizes.

Best Arc - Heroic or Vigilante

Dhahabu Kingdom and the Indelible Curse of Hate #367872 by @Zamuel
The Golden Age Secret of the Paragon Society #344596 by @Wrong Number
In Pursuit of Liberty #344916 by @Gypsy Rose
Legacy of a Rogue #459586 by @Night-Girl aka Liquid
Made to Wave the Flag #384776 by @LaserJesus
Task Force Mutternacht #349522 by @twelfth

Best Arc - Villainous or Rogue

Fear and Loathing on Striga Isle #350522 by @FredrikSvanberg
Unfair Trade #373846 by @Lazarus
The Do-It-Yourself Doom Army Project #410418 by @Twoflower
The End of Saturday Morning #391934 by @Zamuel
Until the End of the World #431270 by @Archdemon aka Eva Destruction

Best Arc - Comedy

Captain Skylark Shadowfancy and the Tomorrownauts of Today! #337333 by @The Cheshire Cat
Drakule vs. The Werewolf Bikers From Hell #340316 by @LaserJesus
The Ghastly Secret Of Dreams #386861 by @Clave Dark 5
The Ms. Manners Task Force #416951 by @Wrong Number
Outbroken #379017 by @Aehaed
Too Clever by Half #378944 by @Samuraiko aka Dark Respite

Best Short Arc: 1 - 3 missions

By Any Other Name #398110 @Fetch
"Hack" #403410 by @Cai
Murders in the RWZ Morgue #452144 by @FredrikSvanberg
Storming Citadel #379488 by @MrCaptainMan
Talos Vice #338380 by @PW aka PoliceWoman

Best Lowbie Arc: designed for levels 20 or lower

A Hero in Need...is a Friend Indeed! #375018 by @Wrong Number
Damage Limitation #447945 by @AP
Holding Down the Fort #379065 by @LaserJesus
Past Echoes of Tomorrow #379399 by @Equation aka Arbiter Fabulous
Talos Vice #338380 by @PW aka PoliceWoman

Best Original Group Design

The Wickerwork from Against the Wickerwork Khan #346904 by @Clave Dark 5
Dhahabu Kingdom and the Unfathomable Nightmare of Sand #453511 by @Zamuel
Evolve or Die #411446 by @FredrikSvanberg
The Golden Age Secret of the Paragon Society #344596 by @Wrong Number
The Crush from The Vengeful Heart #454861 by @Jinkobi