twelfth

And when I read the patch notes, it was the "worst case scenerio" that came to mind. It even seemed "logical" from a certain, skewed perspective. Who knows how the MA scripts are parsing what "Ally" means?

Later, Venture suggested that it may have included patrols and battles on one of his arcs.

Laz, can you go in and replace that ally with an ally-aligned patrol and see if it still happens? I'm curious if the nerf is affecting those too and whether its on a per-critter basis (3-ally patrol < 8-ally patrol) for calculating the XP crash.

Once again Eva comes in and says it all a lot better than I did.

At this point I am definitely throwing down my pen and walking toward the side of the fence where the "Kill XP for MA" Camp is setting up. At this point, XP rewards are pulling down the whole system to the basest, common denominator.

I have to agree with Fred on this, the story-telling portion of the MA is not harmed by this, in so much as there is nothing preventing users from using the system for that purpose. The presence of XP or rewards is superfluous if the purpose of using the AE system is to tell and enjoy a story provided by another player.

However.

The problem with this nerf is the fact that rewards and xp are a significant portion of a player's appeal to the AE system in general. At present, it is difficult enough for an individual MA Author to get plays on their arcs once it falls below the 5-star threshold (and there are a host of reasons for this, and other threads address them). To place in a new disincentive for players to enjoy the arcs that authors are making creatively impoverishes those attempting to use this tool to expand the boundaries of what the players can experience.

I believe that people who care about their arcs and how they perform in the community are going to find their popularity and critical-reception suffering because there are "too many allies" or "doesn't give sufficient reward for risk". I want to make my story-based arcs as friendly to a casual player as possible, and sometimes that means pandering to the need for a demonstrable reward for the gracious expendature of time that the player is making. This nerf makes that job even harder than it was before.

And suggesting that an author refrain from using any function of the interface is as fallacious as suggesting that an author of prose fiction refrain from using the common mechanisms and conceits of literature to tell their stories ("Hey Mr. Bradbury, I know you like to use flashbacks, but we're gonna have to levy a 2% cut to your royalties for each instance in the novel 'cause we had bad experiences/responses in other works you didn't write").

Functionally, no, it doesn't stop us from writing stories using the MA. What it will do is negatively effect how we write them, and complicate the (non-narrative) considerations that authors have to take into mind in order to make that story "marketable".

*cursing* Great.

Nice job breaking it, Devs.

Yeah, I knew about the buffbots and I can tell this patch is supposed to be making use of those subject to diminishing returns. I'd just like some clarification on what details/features in the MA are subject to pinging the nerf bat so I can avoid using them. I'm still annoyed that my story arcs are going to be pig-slapped for trying to help a solo player (I just realized that my 'Inhuman Resources' arc has 1-4 allies in it depending on which mission you're on).

I also know we're not going to get a response from the devs on "X number of allies is okay; Y allies is the threshold for the XP/Reward Crash" but I'll be watching the forums to see what the numbers start looking like.

Okay, I know this is totally an exploit nerf from the speed runs, but here's my question:

What counts as an "allied critter"? Is it an "Ally" Detail? Does it include any group set to "ally" (patrols, ambushes, battles, etc)?

The former stinks, particularly for those of us who design Story-related arcs where several Allies are made available to assist MA Story Solo'ers who might not be able to take on EBs or AVs that are placed in the mishes (Such as the very excellent "Teen Phalanx Forever" arc, which has 3-4 allies per mish). Since soloing makes up the majority of story-based AE activity, this is going to make the present missions unattractive, and designing future missions aggravating.

The latter, if true, is just freaking stupid.

*ahem*

DOOM.

I freaking nearly choked on my cookie when I read this. Nice.

I saw something similar on virtue the other day.

Seen her on virtue pretty frequently, although might not be the same player.

Best one I've seen is Grammaton Rabbi (only saw it on a /search of toons, never saw the toon) - but that's cause I like the idea of a pistol packin' hasidic powerhouse.

Virtue has had a GunKatta for a while (I think they were a thugs/ MM, though). I rolled a GunCata (rad/rp def) catgirl on test but didn't carry her over to live.

My present DP work-in-progress is named "The Gunsel".