Mission Architect

Overview

The Mission Architect, fictionally presented as a training exercise for Heroes and Villains, allows players to build their own Missions and Story Arcs and share them with others in the game. Using a point-and-click interface and filling in the all the text of a mission, players can create story arcs of up to five separate missions by selecting options like size and type of the map, mission objectives, encounter types, and difficulty level of each encounter, as well as costuming the powers and costumes of some of the foes.

Player-created content has been internally talked about for a very long time, as evidenced by a post[1] by Jack Emmert in 2007:

I think player created content can be GREAT...if it's handled correctly.

... We've always talked about ways to get player material into the game...imagine using the base creator tools to make your own missions! Or a your own training room? Maybe some day we can figure a way to put this stuff into the game. The imagination just on these forums alone is so amazing; I can only hope we find a way an outlet for it.

And Issue 14 finally realized the dream.

Architect Entertainment
Hologram Contacts & Data Stream

Architect Entertainment
Data Stream & Ticket Vendor

The Company

Main Articles: Architect Entertainment, Architect Entertainment Buildings

Architect Entertainment is a company created by Dr. Thaddeus Aeon AQSA, with Crey Industries funding. For a description of the Mission Architect from the mad doctor himself, see: From the personal memoirs of Dr. Thaddeus Aeon AQSA

Most city zones have Architect Entertainment Buildings. Players can find them marked on their maps with an AE logo (the drop down menu on the mini-maps toggle that icon on or off).

Create, Test, Publish, and Play

Initially, Missions created remain on the player's computer for the author to test or play for their own enjoyment by themselves or with an invited team. Players can then publish their missions to the servers so that they are accessible by all players across all servers. A Mission Browser lets players find available missions and story arcs through a variety of tabs, sorts, and filters.

All players can rate published missions. As missions are played and more people positively rate them, the creator gains rewards such as Tickets and badges and possibly having their arcs designated Hall of Fame or Developer's Choice.

Those who play MA arcs get Ticket Rewards in place of drops as well as Influence and badges. Tickets can be used to buy a variety of items such as enhancements and recipes, or unlockable content for mission creators such as signature villains or unique maps.

The Mission Architect will allow you to create your own named bosses and foes customizing their costumes, powers, and where and how they appear in the mission. There are close to a thousand maps to choose from and more are being made available.

Missions and Arcs

A published arc can contain up to five missions. All Architect missions will be instanced and not in an open zone. While you are on an Architect mission it will be similar to being on a Task/Strike Force in regards to other contacts being greyed out. However, unlike Task Forces, you are able to invite others to a MA arc after it has started.

You may well notice that your toon's level has changed while in the mission. Your level can shift in either direction and can even vary with each mission in the arc.

Ratings

After the published mission is complete, you can rate it from 0 to 5 stars and leave a comment (this can also be done before the Mission arc is completed), or report it as inappropriate and reasons why. In order to rate an arc 0 stars, you must click 1 star twice.

Rewards

Main Article: Ticket

Full experience (XP) and influence rewards will be granted for defeating enemies in player-made content.

However, in place of drops and end-of-mission XP bonuses, players earn Tickets. Players can take these Tickets to an Architect Ticket Vendor and redeem them for various in-game rewards, such as enhancements, recipes and salvage. Players will be able to purchase unlockable content with their tickets. They’ll be able to get maps, costume pieces and different characters.

Story Arc promoted to Dev's Choice or Hall of Fame will not drop Tickets, but instead give regular rewards of drops and end-of-mission XP bonuses just like standard missions.

Rewards Not Available Through Mission Architect

None of the Defeats badges are available in MA missions, so, e.g., you can't get the Kill Skuls badge for defeating Skulls in MA missions. Also the achievement badges of debt, influence, healing, being mezzed, etc... can not be earned in MA missions. Even if a Story Arc gets promoted to Dev's Choice or Hall of Fame, these badges are still unavailable through the Mission Architect missions.

The only badges that will be awarded are those badges tied to the Architect (including the Architect Day Job badges).

The way the custom foes were designed and the limitation on arcs (like the inability to place foes exactly where one would like) are designed to prevent the Mission Architect from becoming a power leveling or farming tool.

Other information still to be ordered

No cut-scenes will be possible with the Architect.

Mission type and goals like glowie clicks or kill-alls are easy enough to understand. Turns out there is a link between enemies and level though, as enemies exist in various ranges and don't always scale out of those ranges well.

Enemies and allies can be pretty much anything you can already fight somewhere in the game. At the time of Herocon, even Giant Monsters were available for use in Architect missions.

Writing well is always a challenge, and this won't be any different. Players will be able to compose briefings, NPC dialog, clues, debriefings, and souvenirs, just the same as the developpers!

Saving is done to the local computer, and an unlimited number of missions can be saved. Missions can be edited offline, as the data is contained in a text file.

Saved missions can be loaded for players teams. Suggested uses would be SG initiations or just for laughs.

Players can only have three published story arcs (which can contain up to five missions each) per account, but can publish and unpublish at will.

Dev's Choice and Hall of Fame

There are two ways around the three published per account limit. Dev's choice and Hall of Fame. These actually copy arcs onto the game servers and delete them from their published slot, freeing them.

Dev's choice simply means a dev liked it enough to save it. It's not canon, but they liked it!

You get a mission into the Hall of Fame when an as of yet unknown number of players rate it thumbs up.

Both of these will be search options in the Architect menu.

Mission Architect Guides

• Mission Architect Tutorial
• Mission Architect Files
• Mission Architect Custom Units

Screenshot Gallery

• Massively.com and Ten Ton Hammer screenshots
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  "Welcome to Architect Entertainment"
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  Mission Architect UI - First Screen
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  Mission Architect UI - Story Settings & Story Contact Settings
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  Mission Architect UI - Mission Settings
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  Mission Architect UI - Misson Settings 2
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  Mission Architect UI - Mission 1 Goals
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  Mission Architect UI - Basic and Advanced Mission Goals
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  Mission Architect UI - Mission Text
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  Mission Architect UI - Custom Boss Settings 1
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  Mission Architect UI - Custom Boss Settings 2
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  Mission Architect UI - Boss Settings 1
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  Mission Architect UI - Boss Settings 2
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  Mission Architect UI - Creating an Enemy Group
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  Mission Architect UI - Staging the Boss
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  Mission Architect UI - Boss Animations
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  AE - Exterior - Atlas
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  AE - Interior

History

This feature was announced by Positron on April 28th, 2008[2].

External Links

• Official Pre-Release FAQ from Ex Libris
• Forum thread collecting Pre-Release information about the Mission Architect
• Massively.com Mission Architect Article - Feb 16th 2009
  • Screenshot gallery of Misson Architect - Massively.com
• City of Heroes Architect Edition: Hands-On Preview | Ten Ton Hammer
• CoH Issue 14: Video Q&A with NCSoft's Joe Morrissey | Ten Ton Hammer
  • AE - UI Screens | Ten Ton Hammer