Hercules

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Allow us to view other players enhancements management window so we can figure out what SO/IO sets they are currently using. When you right click a player, there will be a View Enhancements menu and when you clikc it, it will open his/her enhancements management window(Just like opening yours). It's like Inspect other characters on standard mmo rpg. Of course, some people will hate this so make it turned off by default(You can turn it on options).

Any thoughts?

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No way. In WoW, you can easily get kicked from a dungeon group because your "equipment sucks", and you just aren't "good enough" to be in their group.

This kind of invasion of privacy would lead to elitism and a repeat of that behavior in this game. My build and enhancements are my own business.

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I'd add rescue animations for both captives. I've noticed that if you don't, captives will immediately take off like Olympic sprinters, which just looks strange.

It wouldn't let me pick any animation that would reasonably fit the circumstances. I have no freaking idea why. Both are stock mobs from the Civilians list.

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Civilians have a really sharply restricted list of emotes, and I have no idea why. I don't even think you can make them cower, which is really weird.

I don't even think they can play the standard "Thank You" emote, and that's just nuts.

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I've gone through a number of the civilians, the list of emotes varies. I really can't figure out how/why they can give a custom mob every animation in the book, but can't give canon mobs the same treatment.

Just ran through Venture's arc, here's my 2 cents:

Chapter 1: Some of the sentence structure sounded a llittle awkward. Examples: "... bystanders caught inside, though."
"Where they're only shooting..."

Chapter 2: I'll agree with the earlier review. Most people will have no clue what OCB and DC stand for.

Spelling: repsonsible
Sentence structure: "...every single mobster, SWAT will mop up."

I'd reduce the number of rogue patrols. One of the bosses was almost dead by the time I found him.

Chapter 3: Sentence Structure: "... agree to a sit-down, just stop the shooting..."

I'd add rescue animations for both captives. I've noticed that if you don't, captives will immediately take off like Olympic sprinters, which just looks strange.

Chapter 4: I've been fighting gangster mobs, now I'm confronted with flame devils. Very odd, and felt like it was pulled out of left field, although with a name like "Diablo", I can kind of see where they'd be his minions.

Overall:
I felt like I was awash in a sea of Italian names - after a while I just lost track and the mission briefings became a bit confusiing.

The custom mobster factions could use some variety. AR and DB, that's about it currently. Maybe a tanker minion with a nightstick?

I was about to add "Hercules Cardinal Mission Rule #10: The Good Guys Always Win." to the review ... before I read the souvenir clue... Venture has a bit of a cruel streak.

This is one of Venture's arcs? What is the arc number?

Edit: Never mind, just saw the other thread...

Just ran through your arc. That has to be the most ... unusual ... story I've ever played. Very well written - only two minor spelling issues that I detected:
- Hypnotise is the british spelling. American is hypnotize.
- In the last arc: recurrance should be recurrence.


Observations:
- Interesting use of glowies to refer to abstract concepts such as memories. Took me a minute to figure out what you were doing though. Some younger players might be confused.
- Nice custom mobs, although some variation between the minion and lieutenent designs would be good
- Inconsistency on where to find my allies. Never found "Steel" on the 2nd map. And had to die and reenter the mission to find him on the 3rd map.
- I didn't like the 'random' ambushes, which were probably triggered by some glowie or destructible object. If I'm fighting a boss, I usually know to watch for something, since thats the most common use of the feature. When I have to pause after every object, thinking "ambush?", it gets annoying. I almost died twice, and did die once after being ambushed while fighting other mobs. You should state in your mission description that it's not easily soloed by squishies. It was rough on my controller, I cant imagine doing it with a blaster.
- The name "The Steel You Lack" is somewhat insulting to the player. Maybe "The Steel Hidden Within" would be more suitable?
- Not sure why, but the contact could not follow me with stealth on. The other allies had no problem.
- Very funny banter between the mobs. I enjoyed it.
- Mission 4: "Would you like fries with that hamburger".... um, ok, is that some kind of hypnotic trigger phrase?
- Mission 4: There was no rescue text from "Secret Shame". I expect the silent treatment from "Steel", but not from all of them.
Overall, an excellent arc, I gave it four stars.

Ok... turn volume down when editing my arc. Turn it back up when testing. Rinse, repeat...

Or, they could just fix it - didn't have any sound effect when it was first implemented, and I didnt hear anyone complaining.

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Have you tried going into the power suppressed back room? No portal noise, and no player powers to distract and irritate.

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I have, and I could still hear the sound effects from players outside the room. Which is the main reason I avoid the "popular" MA zones, like Atlas.

I first noticed this on test a week or so ago, why did the Devs add the constant "grinding" noise to the portal? It can get very annoying after 30 mins or so, while editing an arc...

Request to the devs: Reduce the volume by about 70% or remove it.

I was using a variant of an tech map on one of my arcs - gone. They really need to just fix the maps, not yank them.

No, I just made the assumption that it wouldn't run and started trying to fix things. The arc will run now, but I'm not happy with the execution of the 2nd map - probably going to take several days of experimentation before I find another map that meets my needs.

Mine wasnt showing as invalid in the list - however, I received several errors upon editing it.

After this patch, one of the maps I was using on a published arc mysteriously disappeared. They also messed with some of the captive animations, why, I don't know.

So now, I have to fix the animation, and go through dozens of maps again to find one that works correctly with the series of events that I want to occur. Meanwhile, hoping that no one plays my arc while it's in this state.

There needs to be a "Temporarily Disable" button, to allow authors time to fix arcs after the Devs make changes like this.
While in this state, the mission will not be listed in arc searches and as a result, will not be played. However, it will allow the author to keep existing ratings and not be forced to unpublish/republish.

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I would be willing to pay the same prices we currently pay to add more toons to a server, to purchase more story arc slots per account. I created an 11 mission story arc that I am extremely proud of, but it used up all 3 of my published story allotment slots. I have one arc left on my 2nd account, but have several different stories vying for the one slot. Perhaps this idea has been mentioned already, if so, please let me know where to read up on it. Thanks.

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Um, no. If they want to micro transaction fluff, like costume pieces, no big deal. When they start to do integral stuff like mission slots, I'm gone. I pay a monthly fee already.

Better idea: just give everyone more mission slots, period.

[/ QUOTE ]Since when are extra mission slots integral? They are no more integral than extra character slots. Guess what? You already have to pay to get more of those. Shall I help you pack?

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I have a number of servers to choose from for alts, so no, your comparison is invalid. I don't need to purchase extra character slots, nor would I. If they limited me to one server and said I could only create 3 toons - that would be a valid comparison.

The devs have made MA an integral part of the game, so I completely disagree with your opinion.

I'll do my own packing, if necessary, thanks for the offer.

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How did QA NOT catch that the DEFAULT descriptions of dev-supplied content was breaking arcs? Extremely shoddy.

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I reported that little bug on the test server several days ago. Guess it didnt catch their attention.

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I would be willing to pay the same prices we currently pay to add more toons to a server, to purchase more story arc slots per account. I created an 11 mission story arc that I am extremely proud of, but it used up all 3 of my published story allotment slots. I have one arc left on my 2nd account, but have several different stories vying for the one slot. Perhaps this idea has been mentioned already, if so, please let me know where to read up on it. Thanks.

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Um, no. If they want to micro transaction fluff, like costume pieces, no big deal. When they start to do integral stuff like mission slots, I'm gone. I pay a monthly fee already.

Better idea: just give everyone more mission slots, period.

It definitely doesnt need to be nerfed in the tanker version. Playing my Inv/SS solo through a map is like watching paint dry ... at least relative to playing a scrap or blaster.

Shrug, I think it would be a good trial to see if it would be feasible for player designed MMs to exist. Implement it in the AE, see what combinations would be overpowered, then when you have it all balanced out, let the players create their own.

I was just thinking of a new way to spice up custom groups - add a new option for a custom mm.

Steps in the creation process:
1. Select the primary power set ( Merc, Necro, Ninja, Robotics, Thugs ) - this would impact only the powers that the MM uses himself, and would have no impact on the summoned minions.

2. Select the seconday power set.

3. Select the minions. This screen would have 6 dropdowns, allowing you to select 3 "level 1" minions, 2 "level 2", and 1 "level 3". You can select these mobs from existing canon mobs or from pre-created custom mobs.

4. Design the MM costume

Just like regular MM minions, the level 1 mobs would be 2 levels below the MMs level, the level 2 would be -1 level, and the top level minion would be the same level.

The devs would have to implement logic to perhaps cap the difficulty level of the minions to prevent an extreme/extreme killing machine.

There would also need to be a new standard summoning animation for the mobs. I was thinking something along the lines of the Rikti portal or perhaps just a misty "fade-into-view".

Something like this would really spice up missions, although it could be something of a nightmare figuring out which of the mobs is the boss.

I'd prefer the Goonies map myself - a series of spooky caves culminating with the hidden Pirate ship in an underground lagoon. Then - an entrance into said ship with an even spookier interior.

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In other words, the devs might be united on the position that farming is bad, but still divided on how to stop it.

I guess we'll see.

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They can stop 99% of the farming fairly easily - disallow publishing of any arc that has only boss mobs. Each mission's main group/patrols must contain at least 1 minion and 1 lieutenant. At that point, the farming becomes no more effective than farming a normal mission.

The second change is to remove the auto-sk feature. I'd require people to sk just like in a normal mission.

There are several mixed forest/field maps, as well as a few Croatoa maps which might serve your purpose.

thanks

These weren't custom mobs - it was a mixture of Freakshow, Nemesis, Crey, Carnies etc. As far as I know, the costume pieces don't exist to make lookalikes in the MA editor.

I played an arc recently where one map featured "ghost" mobs that were essentially existing canon mobs with the reflections effect.

I tried creating a custom group with existing mobs, but saw no feature to do this. Do you have to hand edit the mission file to get this to happen, or am I missing something?

Rather than take them out of the zone, a better solution would be to make the interior of the AE building a separate zone. That way, broadcast spam would be limited to the interior.

A true noob wouldn't know to enter that specific building and would play content as originally designed. An altaholic could enter and farm to hearts content.