LordXenite

I know it's fixable... but can you imagine fixing it on an already published arc.. then editing the character, only to have the blasted   come up yet again in another text-field?!

No problem, and sorry if that seems harsh though.

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The second.
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I threw that up there to get a decent number, it's easier for someone to remember four digits then what..7 now?
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Thank you for your feedback, I'm interested on why it would stick?

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Because you get to keep your rating which may ensure your Arc gets a "better" placement in the MA Browser when people would be looking for arcs to play. Why should your essentially new Arc get a better "starting position" than someone elses'?

You're also creating the impression that the Arc already has an established player-base that already played and voted on the Arc itself. If I were to take Childhood Horrors (#5349) with its 4-star ranking spread across 41 votes, and then replace it with a new arc with a different title and different content, I'd basically be claiming that the new Arc was voted on by 41 people with the average rank of 4-stars. That's essentially a lie, isn't it?

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I wouldn't see why this would help break the Ratings system. If it has the same number and someone who played the 'old version' then plays the new one, they wouldn't be able to rate it. So he gains nothing in that respect as far as I see.

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Agreed.

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A side question, do you know what would happen to your 4-digit number if you unpublish it? Does that number get put into a pool to be used again or trashed? Hmm.

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Currently, as I understand it, unpublished ID's are not re-cycled.

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How frowned on would I be if I used a created arc, overwrote it line by line, republished, thus keeping my old number, and entirely redid what was in it?
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Thoughts?

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I think that as long as you're talking about completely re-doing the same Arc, thus presenting a better polished version of the same story, with essentially the same events the Arc originally portrayed, it should be quite alright.

If you're talking about completely replacing the Arc with a radically different Arc, with maps, critters, NPCs and dialogs that are totally unrelated to the original Arc, that would kinda stink in my opinion.

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...Know what else I'd like to see? An "import" option in the live edit section that lets you import an offline text file back into the same ID.

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Me too, but I doubt we'd get that because it doesn't seem likely the Devs would want us to maintain the same ID and rating for different content in our Arcs. I think they're quite serious about 3 slots per account, and each Arc is its own story kind of thing.

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Oh well - now to concept a few dozen episodes!

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Good luck!

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Oh, and by the way, the global would be "@Fyst" not "@Smiling_Joe" - Smiling Joe is just my forum namesake (and second scrapper), but Fyst is my first and still main character.

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I knew that.. I just didn't want to say that myself

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I'm sure it's your bosses.
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"FASTER! FASTER! I DON'T CARE IF THE CODE LOOKS LIKE IT WAS WRITTEN BY A DYSLEXIC HYPERACTIVE FOUR YEAR OLD!"
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**whip cracking noises**

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You're so on the money here, it's not even funny

But... I got my small victory when we (the Dev team I lead) simply did not cave in and got them (Management) to fork the dough for a shiny installation of CodeBeamer (software life-cycle management solution) complete with integrated Subversion and all that!

The system really pays for itself when you have to reconcile changes made by several people who committed their changes on a Friday, after a couple of Beers!

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Cain't walk wit'out yer crutch, eh?
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I'm just kidding! Put down the whacking stick!

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You know... I used to be exactly like that when I wrote machine code for my MC6809E. That was more than 20 years ago. I used to say... "who needs tools anyway?"

Any of these ideas would be wonderful. It's just that to keep the same Arc ID, you have to pay the price of restricting your editing/testing experience. If you really wanted to preserve a sense of continuity between chapters, I think that you need not look further than establishing the Title of a series, and then each chapter could just be published as "Title:Y Part-X". Your audience would then be able to browse your offerings by simply entering "@Simling_Joe Title:Y" (for example).

By the way, it'd be nice if the MA Browser would let us save our favorite search-filters!!

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I...guess. I've never had the least bit of cursor trouble in the MA. I DID find it helps if I delete first instead of pasting over, but that's just learning how this software works. The few   kind of things I run into, I've already edited in the local file first.

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If you delete the whole field contents and paste stuff into an empty field, that will work, but more often than not, I find that it still doesn't satisfy all my text-editing needs.

About those non-breakable spaces (&nbsp, I think that the MA probably puts them into your story-arc when you edit, save and/or publish, which means that even if you cut and paste things, you still run the risk of having those pesky tokens inserted into your text.

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Eh. I suppose. Myself, I see no use for that for me. Looks more like over-complicating a system for my uses. I'm a pretty K.I.S.S. principle guy. I won't even use web site building software. I just write my own code.

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The thing is, sometimes I make pretty big changes in one session and in the end of a session, I may find I simply want to rollback all the changes I've made. With the CVS I've put in place, all I need is to simply right-click the .storyarc file and select "Revert Modifications". Another feature that the CVS allows for, is line-by-line comparison between versions of the file. Not many will need that, but as a Software Developer myself, I've grown used to it.

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Everyone has their own glitch responses, I suppose.

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Most definitely.

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I'm a bit curious as to why people are considering cut-and-paste such a monumental hurdle. It's tough for ME, but that's because I have a weak machine that locks up about every fourth or fifth time I cut and paste (so I save in between each one). But if you have a decent machine that can handle going back and forth, it's a tad more time consuming, but not prohibitively so. At least I don't think so.

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The text-editing tools in CoH were never up to par with what's excepted in applications that are geared towards editing text. Entering your character's biography has always made me want to throw my keyboard through the screen directly at the programmers/designers who decided it was ok to release a text-editing system where the cursor doesn't even behave according to widely accepted concepts. On top of that system, putting another system which completely relies on us being able to edit our text... that's very frustrating. For crying out loud, last night I saw some custom critters with   in their names!!!

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Also, what is a "content version control system"?

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Subversion is an example for a version control system made for managing Software, but also natural text files. The widely accepted term for this is CVS or Concurrent Versions System.

I test with my TriForm PB/WS pair. However, I am finding some odd critter combinations that my Kheldians do just fine against where Blasters/Scrappers/Tankers not to mention Defenders or Controllers can't solo...

I test things with varying degrees of difficulty to see how the mission scales. Once I can solo it on Difficulty Lv2 with most encounters are set to 'Hard', I start testing things with teams.

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Oh sure. Here you come with your good points and your realistic suggestions to ruin my perfectly good nutty idea! HOW DARE YOU BE REASONABLE!!1!

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Sorry... sorry... you're absolutely right! Sometimes I'm so logical I have to ignore myself when I interrupt my own sense of whimsy and suspension of disbelief (which is why my 2nd Arc hasn't been completed yet, I keep finding faults with it day and night! )

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Seriously, though. Good points all. My initial thought with editing live was to be able to copy/paste dialogue and clues, and the characters would be done ahead of time, but your last point about the Devs is the most salient. If they had intended it to be used this way, they would have let us republish to a static arc number.

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Indeed... but just to drive the point home, lets just say that the text editing code in CoH across the board, isn't something I'd trust for more than very minute changes, and even then, I use Subversion to monitor the file-changes like a hawk!

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And really, I suppose it is a lot of trouble to go through if all I'm worried about is the arc id staying the same. I'm just trying to think of ways to get people interested in a series of stories, vise one static one. A static name works, too, but it's not quite as elegant as maintaining ratings and id.

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Very true.

An idea I recently got is to try and tell the same general story, but from the opposite point of view. If your first Arc is Heroic, try and tell the same events from a Villainous point of view. This way, you're getting two story arcs that tell the same story in essence, but appeal to different groups of players, and best yet, both Arcs on their own may generate traffic, if you're lucky, for the opposite Arc from the same player. I'm seriously contemplating doing this with Childhood Horrors for example.

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Okay, so I've got one slot left, and roughly 372 (Blatant and SHAMELESS Hyperbole) stories that I want to make...

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Woah... that's a lot!

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...I had this idea. I would go ahead and make the stories - including any custom critters - and publish the first of them. Then, after a period of time (say, a month) I would edit the published arc and change it completely so that everything but the title (something like MArc TV) would be different from month to month. The description would make it clear that it would change, and the star ratings would be more like a ratings system.

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I think you'd find the effort of editing the story-arc without the support of external tools like spell-checkers and a content version control system would be too much to suffer through, especially if you truly have a large number of stories to tell.

I've already resigned myself to losing the rating of the less popular stories I would publish, only to work and polish them then republish. That way, I would have a stable of stories that will eventually evolve 3 clear winners that would stay up there until one (or perhaps all, a guy can hope.. right?) win DC/HoF status.

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Granted, I could just unpublish the arc and publish a different one, but the idea is that the arc ID and ratings would remain. It wouldn't screw with Hall of Fame or Dev's Choice, because I'd be editing periodically. (Not that anything like this would ever stand a chance of being either of those)

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I think you'd find it will be worse in the long run because people may want to experience an Arc that you have replaced and be disappointed on the spot when they'd find a new Arc instead.

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So what do you good folks think? Doable? Fair? Would that be taking unfair advantage of the system? Against the Eula or Dev intent? If so, then I'm of course open to the slightly less appealing unpublish/publish option.

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I think it's too much effort for not enough gain in the long run, especially when you factor in that had the Devs wanted to encourage this option, the SAVE-ARC options for a published Arc wouldn't switch the Editor to editing your off-line saved version of the Arc!

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...One way they could do it that might be a bit less aggravating to a player is to have some maps where the mission entrance is actually inside a prison cell...

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Better yet, they could for example let us choose the maps' entry/exit-point and completely rejuvenate our missions!

IBYAL (In Before Yet Another Lock, if you didn't figure that out already! :P)

I'd simply like CoH to evolve into CoH2. That's all I can ask for. The rest, I'd wanna be surprised about!

I solo'ed many of those 50 levels I have on my TriFormShade™, and my Lv50 PB got to her "old age" usually in an odd mixture of soloing, teaming with the All-Kheldian SG I run and plenty of TFs.

Kheldians are my AT-of-choice at the moment... and I actually turn down plenty of team-invites, and did so even before I13.

I'm hoping the toolbox reference may refer to fixing the overall present text-editing toolkit... but I'm afraid I'll be disappointed.

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/signed

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/signed + cookies!

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...I'm hoping to be able to add proximity bombs...

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They are essentially there, but their graphic model is an Arachnos design. Look under the Arachnos enemy groups for something like an "Arachnos Missile Drone" or something similar.

I hope they resolve the bugs in the text system. The old <color> tags still aren't working right with keyboard bind files, and chat-activating binds that are bound to a normal ASCII character duplicate that character as the first character in the text input!

Another huge improvement in my opinion would be to move the text filtering from input-time to submit-time... let our keyboards be free of checking for profanity/whatever with every single key-press!

In my opinion, the text editing system needs to be re-done before anything more should be added, and to be honest, I know it may be a QoL feature for a lot of people, but I'd pay $9.99 for just that feature properly done... I want my friggin' paragraphs again!

Could be an issue where the Boss in the critter files has a Cape, but the one defined and saved in the storyarc file does not. Make sure you edit and add the cape through the mission editor rather than just editing the Boss critter itself... that might help.

If the rating is sent to the Server before the 'FINISHED' button is clicked, that's a misleading GUI behavior and in my book, either a design-flaw, or a bug. In essence, the rating should not be sent when the User clicks the stars themselves but rather when they signal the system they're done with the form itself by clicking the 'FINISHED' button or dismissing the form.

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...Consider using Dual Blades and/or Energy Melee instead of Archery and Assault Rifle for the disco minions; I think those attack sets look a little more like dance moves...

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Seconded. I have Dual Blades/Devices combination selected for my Lieutenants (in an arc I'm working on) and after selecting the Talsorian Blades for them, they do look like they're performing dance moves rather than simply fighting. Of course, you run the risk that your player will be mesmerized by the dance moves and forget that their character is actually suffering HP-loss till it's too late... (no joke, this happened to my PB the first time I was busy admiring how my "creations" behaved in-mission)