CoX – Mission Architect info

Positron on the Mission Architect system (info as revealed at PAX):

Mission Architect is whatever text you enter, on the specific map you call (and we have over 1000 different maps in the game), with AT LEAST one objective, but more likely more, with the ability to have allied NPCs (you want to rescue Statesman in the beginning of the map and have him fight WITH you the rest of the way? Done). There are even some objective types going into mission maker that we didn’t even have access to AS DEVELOPERS until Issue 12. There are over 100 different things you can customize in the story arc, and most of those have multiple choices to pick from.

 

Well, it sounds somewhat multiple-choice, but with lots of areas to work with.

Yes, you will not be able to custom build a character and have them appear. Primarily this is because of the way the AI handles powers. Some powers simply don’t work when in the hands of the AI (Mastermind summoning is one example). One of our goals is to put the ability to take an existing Enemy Boss, and change their costume to one you design. Since those powers and AI have all been pre-programmed this can be done without involving ringing Castle up at 2am to debug the AI on the guy in your custom mission. While this is a stretch goal for launch, we want to get this ability into your hands as soon as possible.

 

Somewhat unfortunate, since one of the questions everyone was asking was whether they could put their own characters into adventures as NPCs. You will also be able to (per this) rename those Enemy Bosses.

You WILL get XP and Inf. during Mission Architect missions. I don’t believe we ever said you wouldn’t. We only said that you won’t get it at the same rate as normal-developer-designed content. Why? Well we have all sorts of COOL stuff coming for you in upcoming issues that doesn’t involve Mission Architect and we’d like you to try that out too (rewarding you for doing so).

 

So XP and Inf, but at a lower rate. That’s a shame, though understandable to avoid farming missions.

You get to choose what contact gives out your Story Arc, picking from a list of all the available contacts in the game. Eventually you’ll have the same “customization” options as the custom bosses.

 

Ah. So I infer that when you go to a contact, s/he will have an option for user-designed content.

As for your limited number of Story Arcs. You will have a limited number of PUBLISHED Arcs, you can have TONS of unpublished arcs you are working on, that are not ready for prime-time. If one of your arcs gets enough positive feedback to get into the Hall of Fame, it “graduates” from being one of your published arcs, freeing up that slot for you to put something else in.

 

So you can create missions as part of a “Story Arc” — with a limit on how many of these arcs you can be building — but if it gets into the “Hall of Fame,” that frees up that slot. Interesting. And per this, one-off missions count as a (one mission) arc.

I’ll confess that one of my concerns over the Hall of Fame is that it’s as likely to be a popularity contest (SG members get an advantage) as anything else.

We are WELL AWARE of the customer service issues involved in the content of the missions. We have all seen the Spore Creature Creator, and we know the TTD ratio on player created content in measured in nanoseconds. We have thought of a LOT of the angles already. Publishing a mission, getting a high rating, then pulling it down and changing the text to something inappropriate is something we take VERY seriously.

 

The question is, how strongly will they monitor it?

Good stuff, though. I think everyone will be playing with this.