Lazarus

Forum Cartel
  • Posts

    2387
  • Joined

  1. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
    As I understood it, back then Developer's Choice status was handed much more freely by many people (I got mine tagged by Ghost Falcon), but when it came to Live, I believe it was either Positron or him and a couple of others who tagged the Live DC arcs, and mine wasn't the only one that didn't transfer over. .
    DCs were pretty much being handed out like candy in the early days of i14 beta. It's a shame yours didn't get brought over to live, in my opinion it was one of the few DCs that was any good.

    I do like seeing well-designed custom groups. Ones that have decent difficulty balance, that make sense in context of the story, and aren't just overall silly (unless that is the point, like with Vanden's arc "The Extadine Lab"). I like seeing something different other than yet more Freakshow or another friggin' Nemesis plot.
  2. Lazarus

    The Lazarus Arcs

    The Portal Bandits - Redux
    I've started work on the long-awaited (for myself at least) revamp of "The Portal Bandits". With so much extra space and new features to work with, imagine this as the new Director's Cut version.

    Completed so far:
    * Revamp of Mission 1 mechanics and internal dialog.
    * Total overhaul of Mission 2 (mechanics and internal dialog finished).
    * Revamp of Mission 3 mechanics and internal dialog.
    * Mission 4 moved to Mission 5.
    * New Mission 4!
    * Rewrote Mission 3 debriefing to accommodate new Mission 4.
    * Rewrote Mission 1 Briefing and Debriefing.
    * Rewrote Mission 2 Briefing and Debriefing.
    * Rewrote Mission 3 Briefing.
    * Rewrote Mission 5 Briefing.
    * Preliminary rewrite of overall storyline.
    * Slight revamp of Mission 5 (previously Mission 4).

    The Directors Cut is ready for play!
  3. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marcian Tobay View Post
    New Question: Why does everyone keep referring to the "Comedy" arcs? Are there a surplus? Are they actually funny?
    The problem is that humor is extremely subjective. I've personally found a lot of the acclaimedly funny arcs to be utter garbage in my eyes. It doesn't help either that some of them were so overhyped that I couldn't help but be disappointed when I went to play them.

    I like my humor to be more subtle, many "comedy" arcs try to shove their humor in your face instead.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Liquid View Post
    Good advice, thanks. That does help me as a player, though not much as a creator unless more people learn to do this.
    And yes, the AE search interface very much blows. So many of the useful options are hidden away behind one or two layers of menus, triggered by poorly named buttons and checkboxes. It lacks simple features like being able to use date ranges to search for arcs inside a certain time frame, or being able to sort by number of ratings instead of their invisible averages. (Honestly I think that an arc with a 4.5 star average and 300 plays deserves to be higher on a list than one with 10 plays and a 4.6 average.)
  4. Got tired a long time back of people who already won the Dev Choice lottery making claims that only "approved" arcs should give rewards.
  5. I'll play an arc with a good story once.

    I'll play an arc with a good story and good* rewards more than once.

    * Good meaning "equivalent to a Dev arc of the same length and difficulty".
  6. Quote:
    Originally Posted by ArrowRose View Post
    It seems clear to me that interest in MA is at a low point right now.

    You can tell just by looking at this message board forum. This is the only thread on this forum that seems to be really active at this time.

    My 5 star arc with 46 plays has gotten no plays in weeks. In fact the only plays any of my arcs have gotten in a very long time are from 2 in game friends and PW because I asked for a review.

    At the moment I have no motivation to update any of my arcs because I don't have any idea what sort of fix is coming or even for sure when it will be implemented.
    Same here, I've had an arc on the 3rd page since the week before i17 went live. Not a single damn play since.

    Not much motivation left to update older arcs either if nobody is going to play them, not even the die hard MA players seem to care about MA right now.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ArrowRose View Post
    Where I work as a software developer, if there is ever a fix that breaks things it is backed out. I strongly feel that the recent fix should be backed out because it hurts the people who care about MA. Exploiters will always find ways to exploit and it seems the wrong people have been hurt by the fix.
    I honestly have to question just how professional the developers are at times when they pull stunts like this.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ArrowRose View Post
    I also strongly agree with a purge of arcs that have not been published/republished in say 90 days. Of course devs choice/HOF arcs would be excluded and perhaps even 5 star arcs with more than some fixed number of plays (if the number is high enough it would be easy to check if they are legit).
    I am starting to come around to this suggestion. Sure we could lose a bunch of good arcs because their authors are no longer around, but to be honest I went back and tried to play some of those arcs and found them to be so broken and bug-ridden now that unless the author fixes them no one will want to play them anyway.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ArrowRose View Post
    It is very sad to me that a tool with such great potential to add so much to the game is in the state that it is in now. I hope something is done soon.
    And hopefully not soon (tm), no matter what Dr. Aeon tries to tell us.
  7. Quote:
    Originally Posted by RemianenI View Post
    I dunno about this. Take a look at the people who write many of the antivirus programs everyone uses religiously. Many of them....are former hackers. Can't really teach the mindset that comes with being a malicious (or just curious) tinkerer.
    There is nothing inherently malicious about being a hacker, one can be one without ever doing anything criminal.
  8. Quote:
    Originally Posted by EmperorSteele View Post
    And trusting exploiters to find exploits isn't counter productive. Governments and private companies around the world rely on hackers, crackers, thieves and other magnificent bastards to make sure their systems and security are safe and impenetrable.
    Except most of them are only working for the government as an alternative to going to prison. Otherwise they'd still be living a life of crime.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by EmperorSteele View Post
    Oh, and you can have just as much fun with AE as before, the patch didn't change that. You'll just level slower, no big deal.
    Oh we can if we want to be the only ones playing our own arcs, but the point of writing them is to get OTHER people to enjoy them and that is very difficult now with the current nerf.
  9. Lazarus

    The Lazarus Arcs

    Changes made to the Nagan Hegemony custom group:
    * Various changes to specific critter difficulty and overall group difficulty. Certain problematic powers have been removed or replaced while trying best to keep XP as close to 100% as possible.
    * Nagan Gravitists no longer have the ability to Hold.
    * Nagan Incinerators no longer have the ability to Hold.
    * Nagan Incinerators have traded Blaze for Combustion.
    * Nagan Brawlers no longer have Cobra Strike.
    * Nagan Archers have traded Acid Arrow for Disruption Arrow.
    * Nagan Entropists no longer have Ice Blast.
    * Nagan Jaegers have traded Crippling Axe Kick for Ignite.
    * Nagan Rangers have gained M30 Grenade.
  10. Quote:
    Originally Posted by dbuter View Post
    Any chance someone from Paragon has read this thread and submitted bug reports to the devs? Or can you /bug AE problems yourselves? (I don't know, I haven't had the time to spend making an AE mission yet, so I am not sure what all is involved, though it looks like it could be fun).
    You submit it like you'd submit any other sort of bug, this thread is to warn everyone else.
  11. Quote:
    Originally Posted by SwellGuy View Post
    You mean the markets that were down for much of the time Demon Summoning has been available yet where people have been rocking their auras and footstomps for the past 3 years?
    For those who haven't noticed, the markets have been up since this morning.

    The Demons simply do this annoying howl at random the entire time they are summoned, while spamming footstomp is a conscious jerk decision. They howl while at mission doors, while at the vendors, etc... No other Mastermind henchmen do this sort of thing, why the Devs decided to make Demons as annoying as possible I do not understand.

    Auras never bothered me at all, most of them don't have an annoying audio component like all heal-spamming has.
  12. Quote:
    Originally Posted by NightErrant View Post
    I have yet to do those missions outside of helping friends with them.

    I didn't see my own Flawed Clone, if one was there. (If one --was-- there, it died pretty quick) But I did see a Fire Melee Brute get a Broadsword something or other.

    Army of Me was fun. I was helping a sonic/storm. (I was on a Demons/Dark Mastermind, which would have been... messy...)

    Holy crap were we knocked around a lot though...
    The two worst armies I have seen so far were 8 Pistols/Rad Corruptors and 8 Rad/Devices* Corruptors. The latter was the worst of those two.

    *Apparently Traps is STILL not an option for NPCs aside from Hollowpoint and Double-Tap.
  13. I would very much like it if the Devs would SHUT THE DEMONS UP. Already getting very sick of hearing all the noises that they make all the time, especially in crowded places like the Market.
  14. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Fleeting Whisper View Post
    I was complimented a few days ago... about how I was the only MM around that wasn't a Demon Summoner. (Playing on my Thugs/Dark, my main villain badger)
    Similar thing happened to me when VEATs came out. After getting fed up trying for a couple hours to get a team for my Dominator, I broadcasted that I was starting a team and wasn't a VEAT. Got so many replies right away that I couldn't invite them all. As people kept coming in to replace those who left a common comment when people joined was "I'm getting so sick of everyone being a VEAT today."
  15. Played it with my Rad/Traps Corruptor, this time saved the clone and set her free at the bank. Cobalt always wanted a sister anyway.
  16. Ran it again with my Rad/Traps Corruptor, was disappointed that my clone was Rad/Devices instead. That will be a painful battle against more than one since she loved to spam Smoke Grenade on me.

    For the fight with Ajax I was given a AR/Kin flawed clone. She lasted pretty long against him, I had two emitters down before she finally died.
  17. Tami mercy-killed her dying clone on the way out. She already has her hands full enough with a real twin sister who is just as nasty as her and had decided that this whole clone thing was not worth all the trouble it had turned out to be.
  18. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Bombshell_Blonde View Post
    Finally, I've noticed that there are fewer spawns overall in the missions. I was wondering if anyone else had noticed this too?
    Are these caves maps? I've been noticing that some of the brown cave maps are oddly empty, both in AE and outside of it.
  19. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Eva Destruction View Post
    Fighting 8 Dark Miasma bosses on the other hand....did not go so great. However, I did find out they can be pulled, 2 or 3 at a time.
    You were able to pull? No matter what we always got all 8 Pistols/Rads on us at once. Having 7 Rad Infections on you is brutal.

    Eventually whittled them down with lots of inspirations and hospital trips.
  20. My Pistols/Rad Corruptor got a Ice Assault/Dark Armor clone who turned out to be pretty damn useful and lasted the entire mission.
  21. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tubbius View Post
    Not only shields but also left-handed pistols seem to be problematic. My Tubbius Regalis character is a thugs/devices mastermind character; if his left hand pistol is set to anything BUT Legacy Semi-Auto, it doesn't show the pistol in his hand, and it registers as invalid.

    Just a heads up.
    Another one that never got addressed in closed beta.

    Another thing: all but one of the new Indoor/Outdoor combined maps do not support any spawn control, as usual. The only exception is Cimerora->Phoebas Point, that one does have working Front/Middle/Back settings.
  22. Quote:
    Originally Posted by The_Cheshire_Cat View Post
    Update: If you have text scale set to 0.8, it will register as out of the valid range (Seems like someone replaced a >= with a >). This apparently applies to Dev's Choice as well, because I just checked Astoria in D Minor and it gives me that error.
    That one was in closed beta pretty much from day one, really annoying that it never got fixed.
  23. Quote:
    Originally Posted by The_Cheshire_Cat View Post
    Aren't DC supposed to be grandfathered so that they aren't affected by AE system updates (Because of the fact that authors have no ability to fix anything that's broken)?
    Supposedly.
  24. I have a boss with a Tech Broadsword and Tech Shield, she is not affected.
    Gonna have to check the BS/Shield ally in another arc.