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Player created instances - why are these not mentioned more?
Quesa
Member UncommonPosts: 1,432
Yes, I played CoH upon it's release and I thought it was a great game. I even have an account with them now and love to not only play the game but go through the character designer (another aspect of CoH that is overlooked) which, in my opinion, has one of the most customizable character creation processes in existence.
Another aspect that is never brought up is how you are able to be an architect and engineer your own dungeons for yourself or others to enjoy. Sure, there are some badly created instances but there are also some whacky and very fun ones that have great stories.
Why don't more MMO's pick up on this, it seems like a FANTASTIC way to increase your content with minimal effort.
/discuss
Comments
As much I love the game, i happen to find the Mission Architect system to be a bit of a let-down presently. I realize they probably cannot implement something nearly as robust as the Aurura toolset (from Neverwinter Nights), but having the ability to script some situations and allowing branching stories would be huge. I'm hopeful this can come soon since we have branching situations via the alignment system now. The other is (no surprise) the UI. It's difficult to find story arcs and the rating system is unhelpful as people just vote up more of the farming missions than the better story arcs.
Probably because the players decided to create missions with monsters that gave experience like mad while not fighting back.
I feel there is a lot of unfortunate truth in this post. I think Kitarad nailed it.
"Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "
The AE is more an argument against player-created content than for it. And the character creator isn't overlooked at all. It's praised even by those who don't otherwise like the game.
First i've heard of it, but that would definetly ruin it.. so no wonder it's not mentioned more.
They should probably have some sort of default exp values when it comes to the mobs used in player made content lol.
Well there is - you can't just make a fluffy kitten and give it a bazillion xp, if that's what you're thinking.
What you can do is make a mission which has nothing but enemies who do fire damage, designed for characters with very high fire resistance, effectively building what kitarad described.
It's a shame, because lost among the masses of dross like this, there is a lot of very entertaining player-made content to be found.
Dungeon Empires combats that by making it so that the dungeon creator gets rewarded for players that are defeated in their dugneon. This motivates (to a good degree, but not universally) the creation of challenging dungeons. Dungeon Empires also doesn't allow multiple accounts, puts a 24-hour lock on a dungeon recently completed and has other rules in place to help cut down on farming or other abuses.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
You can get exactly what you want out of the mission architect system.
You can get challenging, extremely well crafted stories that add immensely to the game's content.
You can get instances meant to challenge the very core of your character's strength by fighting multiple AVs at the same time.
You can also get a bunch of enemies that will fall over and fill your experience coffers.
There is no right or wrong way to play it - It depends upon what you're looking for.
Yep. I have found some really great player stories. Thing is you can pretty well tell by the description what you are getting into. I tend to look for funny ones, like one once that said
Assist the fashion police and defeat the poorly dressed slackers. It had mobs of goth kids, crazy multi colored outfits, and so on.
"Never met a pack of humans that were any different. Look at the idiots that get elected every couple of years. You really consider those guys more mature than us? The only difference between us and them is, when they gank some noobs and take their stuff, the noobs actually die." - Madimorga
Now that I'm VIP and played around with this a little, I have to say that indeed, it is very impressive.
Unfortunately, it's been ruined by users (and I guess apathy by the developers). Oh sure, some people have made impressive missions, but trying to find them is difficult, because seemingly every player in the game has to create their own "fire farm", which until I read this thread, didn't get the fire aspect of.
And basically, all the good creations are flooded out. Sure they exist, but they are hard to find amidst all the crap.
R.I.P. City of Heroes and my 17 characters there
At one point, it defintely felt like the ratings mattered - it was easier to find stories that you liked, stories you did not like, etc. I kind of gave up on it... too many bait and switch. To an extent, I think it was because they were trying to cut down on AE farms so people started trying to hide them better.
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Explorer: 87%, Killer: 67%, Achiever: 27%, Socializer: 20%
Yeah, as originally stated, they need to dump the current ratings system and start from scratch to clean it up. They say they aren't against farming, just abusive farming, so putting a category/tag for "farming" could go a long way, along with the otoin to exclude by criteria such as the suggested "farming" tag.
In the meanwhile, the forums are the best place to go to find the better arcs.