I suppose what seems wrong to me is the particular formula used to establish a specific rating. While I can understand the usefulness of a set of standards for reviews, they do little to be helpful if the general player is not aware of the standards being used.
I fully realize the small audience that my particular style may appeal to and I'm willing to accept the ratings given. I'm looking for honesty - not a formula. Something helpful and that relates to story, layout, dialogue and immersion and a fun factor as well. Somehow this is lacking in a certain formula being used and I'd like something more of a personal response.
I'm thinking what could be done is to establish some sort of convention that indicates the mission is harder than normal. Say a tag in the mission name, like Name (Hard) if we can do ('s in names, coupled with the first line of the description being "Warning: this mission is harder than the Cryptic Norm."
If such a convention can be established and catches on, then missions with that tag should wind up being graded accordingly.
I'm thinking what could be done is to establish some sort of convention that indicates the mission is harder than normal. Say a tag in the mission name, like Name (Hard) if we can do ('s in names, coupled with the first line of the description being "Warning: this mission is harder than the Cryptic Norm."
If such a convention can be established and catches on, then missions with that tag should wind up being graded accordingly.
But thats just the thing; "hard" and "normal" are subjective. Napoleon obviously doesnt think his missio is too hard. The only real "standaard" we have is the Cryptic made content.
But thats just the thing; "hard" and "normal" are subjective. Napoleon obviously doesnt think his missio is too hard. The only real "standaard" we have is the Cryptic made content.
Right, we know what the Cryptic norm is. Therefore, if your mission is harder than the Cryptic norm, it isn't that hard to put a tag in the name and to put a warning as the first line of the description.
If people feel it is extremely more difficult than the Cryptic norm, then maybe they suggest changing that first line of text to reflect that. Whatever, that's just fine tuning. The key part is to have some standard way of indicating to players that this mission is NOT the Cryptic norm for difficulty and to allow them to know this at the earliest possible moment, when just glancing at the name.
I agree with both of the above posts.. something must be done and I guess I'm the poster boy... I don't mind... this kind of thing is the reason we are beta testing and I'm confident that an "official solution" will come about in time.
I can handle a few 1 star ratings and don't take it personally. It's up to us to find the problems and suggest solutions which is precisely the reason I was begging/taunting anyone to give my missions a try. I'm still looking for some real reviews which can give me some useful feedback and some suggestions to help me improve my methods and missions.
Like it or not, the difficulty slider is a part of this game, and many people use it. That being the case, when people try to make their missions challenging and then someone plays that mission on a higher difficulty setting, that mission may be impossible to complete. Right or wrong, this will result in bad ratings. So how can the Foundry community address this issue before the system goes live?
From experience with the Mission Architect in CoH, it very much helps to have a description which will let potential players know that the mission is "Team Oriented" or "Solo Playable" etc. Not sure if most would do that, but it does help.
From experience with the Mission Architect in CoH, it very much helps to have a description which will let potential players know that the mission is "Team Oriented" or "Solo Playable" etc. Not sure if most would do that, but it does help.
It helps, and I did for my mission on Tribble. It's a solo oriented mission but not recommended on Advanced/Elite because of a sequence where the player is expected to die. It's not perfect, but at least with the warning, I can tell people I warned them beforehand.
By the way though, these warnings should be written out in that [OOC] orange text highlight that we used to have access to on RedShirt. Cryptic, please... if you're reading this, bring back [OOC] and add some more styles. Please.
Comments
I fully realize the small audience that my particular style may appeal to and I'm willing to accept the ratings given. I'm looking for honesty - not a formula. Something helpful and that relates to story, layout, dialogue and immersion and a fun factor as well. Somehow this is lacking in a certain formula being used and I'd like something more of a personal response.
If such a convention can be established and catches on, then missions with that tag should wind up being graded accordingly.
But thats just the thing; "hard" and "normal" are subjective. Napoleon obviously doesnt think his missio is too hard. The only real "standaard" we have is the Cryptic made content.
Right, we know what the Cryptic norm is. Therefore, if your mission is harder than the Cryptic norm, it isn't that hard to put a tag in the name and to put a warning as the first line of the description.
If people feel it is extremely more difficult than the Cryptic norm, then maybe they suggest changing that first line of text to reflect that. Whatever, that's just fine tuning. The key part is to have some standard way of indicating to players that this mission is NOT the Cryptic norm for difficulty and to allow them to know this at the earliest possible moment, when just glancing at the name.
I can handle a few 1 star ratings and don't take it personally. It's up to us to find the problems and suggest solutions which is precisely the reason I was begging/taunting anyone to give my missions a try. I'm still looking for some real reviews which can give me some useful feedback and some suggestions to help me improve my methods and missions.
From experience with the Mission Architect in CoH, it very much helps to have a description which will let potential players know that the mission is "Team Oriented" or "Solo Playable" etc. Not sure if most would do that, but it does help.
By the way though, these warnings should be written out in that [OOC] orange text highlight that we used to have access to on RedShirt. Cryptic, please... if you're reading this, bring back [OOC] and add some more styles. Please.