What is Mission Architect?

Overview

Mission Architect allows you to create your own adventures and share those adventures with every other hero or villain in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles.

While others play your adventure, they gain knowledge, experience and rewards equivalent to those outside of the virtual world of Architect Entertainment. Once the players are through with your story, they have the opportunity to rate the experience from 1 - 5 stars. The higher your story is rated by other players, the more rewards you’ll earn.

Creating Stories

You can create stories at any of our Architect Entertainment Facilities spread throughout Paragon City and the Rogue Isles. Every facility has a host of Mission Architect Computers located either in the Main Studio or in our ‘no powers’ Studio B.

Local Stories

Local Stories are stories you’re currently working on or that you don’t want to share with the world at large. You can have as many local stories as you want.

Testing Stories

While working on your Local Story, you can test it as if you were actually playing the missions. You can even have a team of up to seven other heroes and villains accompany you. While testing no one gains experience, earns tickets or any other type or reward except for ‘Testing’ specific badges.

Publishing Stories

You can publish up to three stories and share them with others. Each story can have up to five missions. Each mission has up to 25 goals. When an story is published others are able to see it, play it and rate it. The better rated your story becomes the more tickets you’ll earn.

Playing Stories

You can play the stories created by other players through the Mission Browser on the Architect Computer. The Browser offers a number of sorting options and filters to help get to the stories you want to play. While playing these player-made adventures, you’ll earn equivalent experience as you would outside of Mission Architect. You’ll also earn Tickets that you can take to a Ticket Vendor and redeem for other rewards, including unlockable content within Architect. When you’re through with the adventure you’ll be able to rate the story and leave a comment for the author.

Creating Stories in Mission Architect

Story Settings

Stories in Architect are broken up into three logical parts, Story Settings, Mission Settings and Mission Goals. Stories are made up of a series of chapters or missions that follow one after the next. You can have up to five missions in a single story in Mission Architect. Each of these missions can have a number of goals for the players to accomplish before the mission is considered complete.

• ► Story
  
  • ► Missions
    
    • ►Goals

Now we’ll walk through each of the steps for creating a story in Mission Architect.

Story Title & Description

The first step is to come up with a name for your story and a short description. When you publish your story, this information will be what other players see. It will also be one of the factors players use to determine if they want to play your story or not, so make it good.



Story Contact

A Story Contact is the person or object who tells the story to the players. You need a name for the contact and you need to determine the type of contact. You’re options for type is Default, Standard Contacts, Enemy Groups, Objects and Custom.

Contact Types:

• Default: The blank hologram contact.
• Standard Contacts: Any existing Story Contact already in our database.
• Enemy Groups: Every individual in our database from Paragon City and the Rogue Isles.
• Objects: Inanimate objects that can also be used as Story Contacts.
• Custom: A Story Contact you create yourself using our custom character creator.

If you’re not sure what to put for the Story Contact, don’t worry you can always come back later or even leave it blank.

Story Parameters

Story Parameters are optional settings not required for the story to be playable. Currently, the only setting is the Suggested Alignment. Suggested Alignment is the recommended alignment of the story. The options are Heroic, Neutral and Villainous. This setting doesn’t restrict players from playing the story. It is merely a way for you to label your story with a specific alignment.

Souvenir Clue

Souvenir Clues are pieces of information (text) the players take with them once they’re through with the adventure. These clues are keepsakes to remind the player of your story.

Souvenir Clue Options:

• Souvenir Name: The name or title of the clue.
• Souvenir Description: The body of text for the clue.

Mission Settings

Now that you’ve named your Story, picked your Story Contact and filled out any of the optional story settings, you can begin working on your first mission. In Mission Settings you define all the high level aspects of your mission. Where does the first mission take place and who are the enemies that populate it?

Enemy Group

Here you pick the type of enemy you want to populate the mission. There are two general categories of enemies. They can be Standard, which come from existing enemies already in our database or Custom, which are enemy groups created by you.

Standard enemy groups are restrictive by security level. This means they can only appear in a finite amount of player levels (1 – 50). If you chose Standard enemies, players will be restricted to play your story within the level rage of those enemies. This means the players could potentially have their level dramatically increased to fight a high ranking enemy group or the players could have their level dramatically dropped to be on par with a lower level enemy group. You can see the enemy group’s level range next to their name in parentheses: Clockwork (1 - 20).



Map Type

Once you’ve chosen the enemies you want in the mission, you need to select the location or the map for the mission. Each Map Type is made up of multiple individual maps, broken down by length.

For example, the map type of ‘Office’ has Small, Medium and Large sizes. Each one of these sizes has twenty individual maps to choose from.

Map Length

This is the overall size of the map. Common options are Tiny, Small, Medium and Large.

Map

The final option for setting the location is choosing the specific map. You can leave the map as Random by default, or you can choose from one of the individual maps in the list.

When you select a specific map, you will see important information about that map displayed on the right hand side of the Mission Architect window.

Map Information:

• Map Image: This is the overhead image of the map. If the map has multiple floors there will be an arrow to the right of the image that allows you to cycle through the different floors.
• Map Details: Each map can only hold a finite amount of mission goals (see Mission Goals). In the Map Details section you see how many of each type of Mission Goal is allowed.

Mission Parameters

Here you can chose optional settings for this specific mission. Options include:

Mission Parameters:

• Mission Pacing: This controls the level range progression of enemies on the map.
• Time to Complete: This sets the amount of time the players have to complete the mission in minutes. Be aware that setting a timer creates a potential for the players to fail the mission.

Mission Complete Clue

This gives the players a clue or a piece of information once they’ve completed the mission. A clue usually reveals some deeper aspect of the story to the players.

Mission Complete Clue

• Clue Name: The name or title of the clue.
• Clue Description: The text of the clue given when the player completes the mission.

Mission Text

Write Text

There are five required text fields for a single mission, six if it’s possible for the mission to be failed. Let’s go over each one below.

Mission Introduction Dialog

The first dialog the players read regarding the mission. It’s spoken by the Story Contact to the players.

Example: I really need your help with something. There’s this guy… and, uh, he’s doing something really bad.

Mission Send Off Dialog

The dialog the players read after they accept the mission from the Story Contact.

Example: Thank you so much for helping me. This guy hangs out in this old office building. His name’s Frostfire; he’s a member of the Outcasts.

Compass Active Task Text

This is a short description displayed in the navigation or compass window while the players are on the mission.

Example: Defeat Frostfire

Still Busy Dialog

The dialog given by the Story Contact if the players returns to them but haven’t yet completed the mission.

Example: Have you taken out Frostfire yet? It’s really important for you to go into that old office building and have a talk with him, preferably with your fists.

Return Success Dialog

This is the dialog given by the Story Contact when the players return after successfully completing the mission.

Example: You did it! I can’t believe you took out Frostfire. Did he happen to mention anything about my sister? That’s why I wanted you to talk to him. Did I forget to mention that?

Additional Text

These are text options that are not required for the mission to be playable, but help add depth and personality to your story.

Mission Title

This is the title of the mission, displayed in all the Story Contact dialog windows. The Mission Title can be different than the Story Title. However, in most cases it’s the same.

Example: Face Off Against Frostfire

Mission Subtitle

This is the subtitle of the mission, displayed directly underneath the Mission Title in all the Story Contact dialog windows.

Example: Part One or Mission One or Prologue

Mission Accept Text

The text the players click when they agree to take the mission from the Story Contact. By default this text is ‘Accept’.

Example: Agree to take out Frostfire


Mission Entry Popup

You can have a window popup when the players first enter the mission map.

Example: You were sent in here to take down Frostfire, but something tells you there’s more going on than meets the eye.


Mission Success Popup

You can also have a popup window appear when the players exit a mission they’ve successfully completed.

Example: You’ve taken down Frostfire. Now return to your contact and find out what’s really going on.

Mission Fail Popup

Finally, you can have a popup window appear when the players exit a mission they’ve failed to complete.

Example: You didn’t manage to take down Frostfire. He got away.

Return Fail Dialog

Dialog spoken by the Story Contact if the players fail the mission. This only shows up if the mission can be failed. Failing a mission does not stop the story from progressing.

Example: What? He got away? But what about my sister? He was supposed to know where she was. What am I going to do?

Now, you have the overall story settings chosen, you’ve picked the location, picked the enemies and written the dialog for the first mission. Next we move onto Mission Goals.


Mission Goals

Mission Goals are achievable objectives placed in your mission. These goals range from having the players defeat a specific boss to collecting information from a computer. Normally, Mission Goals must be achieved in order for the mission to be considered completed. However, you also have the option to turn this on or off. There are two types of Mission Goals, Basic and Advanced. We’ll cover all of them below, but first we’re going to cover some of the common properties amongst all of the Mission Goals.

Common Mission Goal Properties

There are a handful of mission goal properties that are common amongst all. Rather than cover them in each mission goal, we’re just to discuss them now.

Name

The name of the mission goal. This name will appear in the Target Window when the players interact with it.

Required for Mission Completion

This sets whether or not the players need to achieve this goal in order for the mission to complete. Not every mission goal has this option.

One of the things you should note is that if you turn off the Required for Mission Complete option, the object will not show up in the Navigation Window. The only way you can get not required text to display in the navigation window is if you specifically edit the Navigation Text (Plural) and the Navigation Text (Singluar).

This Mission Goal is created when…

This allows you to trigger one mission goal after another. For example, you could have a Boss mission goal appear on the map only after the players have rescued a Captive. In this option, you choose the mission goal that causes this goal to be created.
Quantity

This allows you to increase the number of mission goals of this type. These mission goals will be exactly the same.

Placement

This controls where the mission goal will appear in a mission. Your options are Front, Middle and Back. You should note, that outdoor maps do not have a Front, Middle or Back. Instead, it is considered one large room.

Difficulty

This controls the rank and amount of the enemies in this mission goal. Increasing the difficulty causes enemies of higher rank to appear as well as increasing the number of enemies.

Navigation Text (Singular / Plural)

This is the text that displays in the compass window for this mission goal. If there is only one mission goal of this type then the Singular Text will displayed. However, if there are more mission goals the Plural Text will display.

You can have multiple mission goals of different types displayed under the same Plural Text. All you have to do is have the same text in each of the Navigation Text (Plural) fields.

Example: The mission has three different objects, a computer, a desk and a bookshelf. The Navigation Text (Plural) for all of them reads “Clues to Find”. This will cause the text in the compass window to display “3 Clues to Find”. Also, you should have the Navigation Text (Singular) be the same for all three with the text of, “1 clue remaining”.

Clues

Many mission goals have the option of granting a clue once they are completed. Clues are little pieces of information that propel the story forward. Clues have two fields, Clue Name, the name of the clue and Clue Description, the actual text of the clue.

That covers the common options shared amongst most of the mission goals. Now, let’s move onto the specific mission goal options.

Fight a Boss (Basic)

A boss is a powerful enemy that the players will face as they play through the mission. This could be the climatic fight at the end of the mission or just a cool encounter along the way.

Example: The Boss, Frostfire, must be defeated in order for the players to successfully complete their mission.

You should be aware of the following settings for this Mission Goal.

Alignment

This controls what side or team the boss is going to be on when the players approach him. Options include:

• Ally: The boss is actually on the side of the players and the enemy of all the other characters on the map. You can’t have a boss set as allied and still require him to be defeated for the mission to complete.
• Enemy: This is the default setting. The boss is the enemy of the players, just like everything else on the map.
• Rogue: The boss is the enemy of the player, but is also the enemy of other non-player characters (NPCs) on the map as well. This boss isn’t liked by anyone.

Surrounding Enemy Group

This sets the enemies that are surrounding the boss. All bosses come with a group of minions or lieutenants around him. This option sets the group for those enemies. By default, this is set to Same As Boss.

Boss Flees on Damage

You can make your boss attempt to exit the mission when he his hit points drop to a certain percentage. If he manages to exit the mission, the players will fail the mission.

Boss Flees on Minion Defeat

You can make your boss attempt to exit the mission when too many of their minions have been defeated. If the boss manages to exit the mission, the players will fail the mission.
Defeat Condition

There are two ways the boss can be considered defeated.

• Entire Encounter needed to complete: This means that the boss and all of his surrounding minions and lieutenants must be defeated in order for the Mission Goal to be considered complete.
• Only Boss needed to complete: This means that the players only have to defeat the boss, not the boss and his minions.

Collect an Object (Basic)

An Object is an inanimate piece that appears on the mission map that the players can interact with. This object emits a sound and a glow to alert the players of its whereabouts. Many Architects refer to these objects as ‘glowies’ because of this. Objects are useful for finding clues, planting false evidence, or stealing a prized item.

Example: Break into that office and steal the credit card data off of their computers.

You should be aware of the following settings for this mission goal.

Collection Type

Collection mission goals are broken down into two categories: Wall and Floor. This determines the general location of where these objects will spawn. A Wall object can only appear on or against a wall where as a Floor object is the type of object only found on the floor.

Interact Time

This is the amount of time in seconds the players must remain next to the object. As the timer counts down, the players will see a progress bar filling up. If the players are attacked or move, the counter will stop and they’ll have to start over again.
Remove Object on Complete

Once the players have finished interacting with the object, you have the option to remove it from the map.



Release a Captive (Basic)

Captives are harmless individuals in the mission for the players to rescue. Once freed, the Captive immediately flees to the nearest door for safety. Of all the Person orientated mission goals, this is the simplest. It can’t be failed and the fleeing captive can’t be targeted or defeated in anyway.

Example: Enter the abandoned warehouse and rescue Jane Marie.

Defeat All Enemies (Basic)

This makes it so the players must defeat every enemy in the mission in order for it to be completed. Note: Defeat All Enemies ensures that players stay in your map. However, forcing them to run around and track down the last (and oftentimes elusive) enemy can be a potentially frustrating experience.

There are two states for a Defeat All mission goal.

• Defeat All Enemies on the Map: The players must track down every enemy on the map and defeat them.
• Defeat All Enemies in the end room: The players must only defeat the enemies in the last room.

Add an Ally (Advanced)

The Ally mission goal adds a character to the map who can team up with the players and potentially aid them in combat. The Ally can be surrounded by enemies or they can be by themselves waiting for the players to find them.

Example: Positron is surrounded by Malta. Once the Malta are defeated, Positron stands up and says, ‘Thanks, now let’s shut this place down.’ The player can then go through the rest of the mission with Positron by his side.

You should be aware of the following settings for this mission goal.

Enemy Group Difficulty

Within this setting is an option for Single. This removes all of the surrounding enemies from the ally, leaving them standing by themselves.

Ally Behavior

This is what the Ally does once the players have ‘rescued’ him. Options include:

• Follow: The ally will follow the players through the map.
• Run to Nearest Door: The Ally will act like a Captive and simply run to the Nearest Door and leave the mission. The difference between this and a Captive mission goal is that the Ally will fight and be attacked while attempting to flee to the door.
• Run Away: The ally will run away from the players, but remain on the map.
• Wander: The Ally will not follow the players, but will wander the map, similar to a patrol.
• Do Nothing: The Ally will simply stand there and only fight enemies that are around him, assuming you set his Combat Abilities to Aggressive or Defensive (see below).

Combat Abilities

This setting determines how the ally is going to interact with enemies on the map. Options include:

• Fight Aggressive: The ally will attack other enemies on the map, oftentimes running away from the players to engage.
• Fight Defensive: The ally will fight other enemies but will remain as close to the players as possible.
• Non Combat: The ally will not fight enemies and enemies will not attempt to fight the ally.
• Pacifist: The ally will not fight enemies, but will be attacked and potentially defeated by them.

An Ambush (Advanced)

An Ambush mission goal causes a group of potential enemies to come after the players on a mission. This mission goal is triggered after the players complete another goal on the mission. For example if the players interact with a computer that causes an ambush to come after them. The trigger is the computer. Ambushes can’t be set as required for mission complete.

Example: Once the final hostage has been rescued, a wave of Arachnos soldiers storm the mission map.

You should be aware of the following settings for this Mission Goal.

Create Ambush when…

This is the mission goal that creates the ambush. You need to link this ambush to an existing mission goal in order for it to work correctly.

Ambush Alignment

This sets the alignment of the ambush when it is created. Your options are:

• Enemy: This is the default. The ambush is red to the players.
• Ally: The ambush that is created is actually the player’s ally. The Ambush, however, will not follow the players, but will attack anything around them.
• Rogue: The ambush is the player’s enemy, but they are also the enemy of others on the map. They will fight the players and anything else that comes their way.

Add a Defendable Object (Advanced)

A Defendable Object mission goal is an object the players must defend from waves of attacks. Before the players can defend the object, they must first find it and defeat the surrounding enemies. This will cause the wave of enemies to attack. This mission goal is considered complete when the players have successfully defeated all the attacking enemies.

Example: You need to protect the altar from the Circle of Thorns until the ritual is complete. If they destroy it, the entire world is doomed!

It should be noted that this mission goal can be failed. Because of this, you’ll need to make sure to fill out the Mission Failure Dialog spoken by your Story Contact at the end of the mission.

Add a Destructible Object (Advanced)

A Destructible Object mission goal is one where the players are sent into a mission to destroy a specific, physical object. The object will be guarded by enemies. The detail is considered complete when you’ve successfully destroyed the object and the enemies guarding the object. This detail can’t be failed.

Example: Somewhere in this warehouse is a cursed relic that will doom the world if it’s not destroyed.

Add an Escort (Advanced)

An Escort is a ‘friendly’ person who the players must rescue and then led to safety (exit). Escorts are dangerous because there’s a chance the person can be defeated before the players can get them to the exit. This causes the mission to automatically fail. Escort missions can also be set up as kidnappings, depending on the flavor text and animations you use.

Example: Arachnos needs you to break into a tech lab and kidnap a Crey scientist.

You should be aware of the following settings for this Mission Goal.

Enemy Group Alignment

This sets the alignment of the enemy group, including the person the players are supposed to escort. Options include:

• Default: The person being held is the player’s ally and the surrounding group are their enemies. In short, the ally is blue. The enemies are red.
• Rogue: The person being held is the player’s enemy as is the surrounding group. This option is possible as a required element for the mission, but if the players kill the person the mission will fail. This setting can be useful for kidnap missions because the enemy has the potential of fighting the players along the way.

Combat Abilities

This sets what the person does once the players have rescued him. Options include:

• Fight Aggressive: The person will attack other enemies on the map, often time running away from the players to engage.
• Fight Defensive: The person will fight other enemies but will remain as close to the players as possible.
• Non Combat: The person will not fight enemies and enemies will not attempt to fight the person. This setting is good if you want the players to have a safe and easy time escorting the person out of the mission.
• Pacifist: The person will not attack the enemies, but the enemies will attempt to attack and defeat him.

For the cases of Fight Aggressive, Fight Defensive and Pacifist, there is a chance the person can be defeated.

Arrival Behavior

This sets what the person will do when they reach the mission exit. Options include:

• Do Nothing: The person will simply stand there and do nothing.
• Follow: Once the person is escorted to their destination he will follow the players.
• Run Away: The person will run away in fear when they reach their location. They will remain on the map and not attempt to exit the mission door.
• Run To Nearest Door: The escort will run away and find the nearest door from which to exit.
• Wander: Upon arrival, the person will begin to wander around the area.

Betrays on Arrival

Betrays on Arrival means that once the person is taken to the mission door, he will turn hostile towards the players. This doesn’t prevent the mission from being completed.

Add a Patrol (Advanced)

Patrols are enemies that wander the map. This Mission Goal is good for making your map feel more alive as well as fleshing out the story of your mission. Patrols can’t be flagged as required for mission complete. They’re simply useful to make the mission feel more alive.

Example: As the players enter the map, they notices two guards walking around. One guard says, ‘So, you think the boss is actually going through with it?’ The other guard says, ‘Between you and me, I hope not.’

Add a Battle (Advanced)
Add a Battle has two enemy groups on the map fighting with one another. You can set who those enemy groups are as well as some dialog they say to each other and when you approach them.

Example: ‘Arachnos is invading a Longbow base and there are skirmishes between the two groups throughout the mission.’

Settings
You should be aware of the following settings for this Mission Goal.

Multiple Enemy Groups

Notice on this Mission Goal that there are two Enemy Group options. The first is for one enemy group, the second for the other. Throughout this Mission Goal the two different enemy groups will be referred to as Enemy Group One and Enemy Group Two.

Battle Alignment

This sets the alignment of the battle on your map. Options are:

• Both Groups are Enemies: The two groups are fighting each other. Both groups will be hostile to the players as they approach. This means they can potentially defeat one another before the players arrive.
• Group One is Ally: Both groups are fighting, but the first group is allied with the players.
• Group Two is Ally: Both groups are fighting, but the second group is allied with the players.

Playing Stories in Mission Architect

Overview

In Mission Architect, you can play arcs created by both heroes and villains. While playing stories you’ll gain equivalent experience and rewards as you would outside of Architect Entertainment. The only real difference you’ll notice is that you’ll also collect Tickets. You can redeem these tickets at a nearby Architect Ticket Vendor for rewards.

Mission Browser

You can access a Mission Browser from any computer in the Main Studio or in the No Powers Studio B. The Mission Browser is where you’ll see stories published by other heroes and villains. Our database gives you a number of sorts and filters to help you find the adventure that’s right for you.


Sort Options:

• Rating: Sorts the highest rated content to either the top of the bottom of the list.
• Length: Sorts the longest missions to either the top or the bottom of the list.
• Date: Sorts the newest stories to either the top or the bottom of the list.

Search Options

Clicking the text that reads ‘Search Options’ will expand a small portion of the Mission Browser window. Here you will be able to filter your searches through a handful of options. Notice that as you filter your search, your filters will be displayed at the top of the window following the Filtering by: text.

Search Options:

• Text Field: Type in what you want to search for here to filter your search to just those stories. This search will search the Name, Description, Enemy Group and Author Name.
• Rating: Filter stories by Stars, Developer’s Choice and Hall of Fame.
• Length: Filter stories by their length.
• Morality: Filter stories by their suggested alignment.
• Language: Filter stories by language.
• Only show me arcs I haven’t played: With this toggle turned on, the Mission Browser will only show you stories you haven’t played. This is on by default.
• Only show me arcs I haven’t voted on: With this toggle turned on, the Mission Browser will only show you stories you haven’t voted on. This is on by default.
• Clear: This button clears out all search filters.

As the stories in the Mission Browser grow, Architect Entertainment recommends using multiple filters and sort options to help you find the adventures you want.

Rating Stories - The Star System

As you play through stories created by others, you’ll get the chance to rate the story from 1 - 5 stars. If you rate the content well, the creator will gain tickets.

Comments

You can also leave a comment to the creator of the story you’re on, telling them what you liked or what you would like to see them improve.

Hall of Fame

Arcs that become very popular among the community will earn the ‘Hall of Fame’ rank. Hall of Fame stories get permanently stored on the Arc Server and allow the author to publish a fourth story up to the server.

Developer’s Choice

Dev Choice stories are stories that the developers hand pick as the best of the best. Dev Choice stories get permanently stored on the Arc Server as well and allow the author to publish an additional story up to the server.

Guest Author
Guest Authors are individuals specially brought in to tell stories within Mission Architect. You can think of these stories as a type of Dev Choice.

We’ve covered how you rate stories and the different types of ranks a story can have. Now, let’s spend some time talking about what happens to those stories that are considered inappropriate for Mission Architect.

Inappropriate Stories

Mission Architect wants an enjoyable experience for everyone. To that end, we have to heavily monitor all the stories being created within this system. We hope you will aid us in keeping a watchful eye for stories, characters or situations that aren’t acceptable.

Flagging Content

Stories that have inappropriate content can be flagged for Architect Entertainment’s Customer Service team to investigate. You can flag content by hitting the Architect Options button in your compass window. At the bottom of the window you’ll find a big red button that says Report for Content. Hitting this button will open up another window, allowing you to give more detail regarding the story.



Report Options:

• Inappropriate Content: Stories that step outside of the T for Teen ratings or violate the End User License Agreement (EULA) in some way.
• Copyright Infringement: Stories that use characters, plots or events owned by others.
• Broken of Bugged Mission: Stories that have problems that make it uncompleteable.
• Other Violation: Reasons not listed above that make the story inappropriate.

Once one of these four options is selected, players are asked to fill out a complaint about the story. These complaints will be viewed by both Customer Service as well as the original creator of the story (if the story gets banned and unpublished). Be as constructive and helpful as possible. This is not the place to vent your anger or frustration at the creator or Mission Architect as a whole.

Banned Once

If a story gets flagged repeatedly for inappropriate content there is a chance the story will get pulled from the server before customer service investigates it. This unpublishes the story. The next time the creator logs into Architect, he will be notified that one of his stories was banned. He’ll also be able to read any complaints left about this story. From here, the creator will have the option to make some changes to the story and republish it or simply delete the story altogether.

Banned Twice

If the creator makes changes to the story and republishes it, the story goes back up to the Arc Server as normal. However, the story is being watched. If it continues to get hits for bad content the story can and will get pulled again. The creator will again be notified that the story has been pulled. They will also be informed that from this point, they are not allowed to simply republish the story. Instead, they have to make any changes and submit the story directly to Customer Service.

Report to Customer Service

Once the story is submitted to CS, it’ll be up to them to decide how best to proceed. They can choose to mark the story as acceptable, removing all flags from the story and not allowing any other flags to be placed on it. However, they can also decide that the content is unacceptable and take action against the creator. This action could range from a simple warning to being permanently banned from Paragon City and the Rogue Isle entirely.

Architect Rewards

You can break rewards in Mission Architect into two distinct groups, Rewards for the Creators and Rewards for the Players.

Creator Rewards

Those who make stories for Mission Architect will receive Tickets based off of player approval. The higher a story is rated the more tickets the creator will gain. There is even a chance that if the story is liked well enough that it’ll move into the Hall of Fame. When content gets moved into the Hall of Fame the story is then permanently uploaded to our Arc Server. This allows the player to publish a fourth story up to the server. If another of his stories gets into the Hall of Fame or even in the highly coveted Developer’s Choice category, the player will be able to publish a fifth story.

Player Rewards

Those who choose to play others stories in Architect will earn equivalent experience and rewards as if they were adventuring outside of this simulated environment. The only key difference is that players will gain Tickets, instead of random drops. These tickets can be redeemed at a local ticket vendor for Enhancements, Inspirations, Salvage, Recipes and more.

Architect Tickets

Architect Tickets are similar to our Merits System. If you’re unfamiliar with that system, let us explain. As you defeat enemies on an Architect mission or complete objectives you gain Tickets. When you complete a mission, you gain bonus tickets equal to the amount of tickets you collected throughout the course of your mission. This bonus actually increases for each mission in a StoryArc.

These tickets are stored as a unique type of salvage. You can then take these tickets to a Ticket Vendor located in any Architect Entertainment building and redeem them for rewards.



Badges

While playing in Mission Architect you can earn Architect specific badges. There are a number of badges for playing in both Test mode as well as playing Published content. However, the only other badges besides Architect badges that can be earned while in Architect are the badges that are granted to you for earning a certain amount of badges.

Custom Characters

Overview

While Mission Architect has the largest database of heroes and villains in the known dimensions, sometimes it can still not be enough. That’s why Architect allows you to create your own characters. You can pick the rank, fighting preference, powers, gender, costume, name and description of your custom character. Custom characters can be used in any of the following ways:

• Story Giver: This is the person who acts as the contact for your story.
• Boss: The major boss you want the players to fight.
• Allies: A hero or villain the players come across on the mission who teams up with them.
• Captive: A helpless citizen the players must free.
• Escort: A person the players must track down and safely lead out off the map.

Custom Characters

You can create a custom character from the My Creations tab in the Mission Browser. Just look for the text that reads My Characters. Select that text then select the button that says Create Character. When you hit this button you’ll begin the Character Creation Process.

Rank

All characters in Architect have a Rank. This lets others know how powerful they are.

Character Ranks:

• Person: This is the weakest rank possible. The Person rank doesn’t even have powers. Because of this you can never have a character ranked Person as a Boss, Escort or Ally. They can only be the Story Giver or a Captive.
• Minion: This is the lowest powered rank in Architect. Minions are a dime a dozen. They’re weak, slow and easy to take down.
• Lieutenant: Stronger and faster than a Minion, but no where near as tough as a Boss.
• Boss: Bosses are stronger and better than Minions and Lieutenants. They don’t appear as often on a map, but when they do, they’re dangerous.
• Elite Boss: More powerful than a simple Boss, Elite Bosses give players pause before they try and take them down. A single player may have difficulty taking one of these down.
• Arch Villain: The meanest of the mean. These characters strike fear in the hearts of whole teams. While they provide the greatest rewards for players who defeat them, they also deal out the most lethal attacks and have the strongest defenses.

Fighting Preference

Once you’ve selected the rank of you custom character, you can choose their preferred fighting style. You’re options are:

• Melee: The character prefers to fight up close and personal.
• Ranged: The character prefers to stay at a distance to attack.

Choosing Powers

We’ve divided powers up by their associated archetypes. Players who are familiar with our archetype categories will find this method easy to create the characters they want. However, if that’s too confusing for you, we’ve also included an ‘All’ group.

Difficulty

As an architect, you can decide how difficult you want your custom characters to be. In general, custom characters can easily be more powerful than standard enemies in a mission. Increasing the difficulty of custom characters should only be done if you’re intending to make an extremely hard fight for the players.

• Standard: This is the baseline difficulty. It’s as close to the normal difficulty as custom characters are going to get.
• Hard: This makes the custom characters much more difficult by giving them access to even more powers than the standard custom characters.
• Extreme: The highest difficulty setting possible. This setting gives the custom character access to every power in the power set. Beware.

Primary Powerset

The first step is to select a Primary Powerset. This is the primary attack powerset your custom character is going to use. Powersets are a group of powers that work well together and have a similar theme. In a mission, your custom character will choose which power from this powerset to attack with, depending on what difficulty you set them at. When you select a powerset, notice the column just to the right. This displays a description of the Powerset as well as the individual powers attached to that set. If you highlight over these individual powers, you’ll notice the column just to the right of that will display important information regarding that power. Feel free to explore each of these Powersets until you find one that fits your custom character.

Secondary Powerset

Once you’ve picked the Primary Powerset, you must not select the Secondary Powerset. This powerset can also be an attack power, but it’s recommended that it be something more defensive. However, the choice is yours.

Body Type

Now that your custom character has powers, it’s time for you to select a body type (female, male and huge). Experiment with the sliders to get the body type just how you like it. Once you’re ready, hit Next to continue.

Costume

After body type you get to pick the costume or outfit your custom character is going to wear. Architect has a lot of options to choose from so take your time and get it just right. Note, if you don’t get it just right, you can come back at any point and edit the costume.

Registration

Finally, you have to register your custom character with Architect Entertainment. To do this, you’ll need to come up with a valid name and description. You’ll also need to attach this custom character to an enemy group. If this is your first time creating a custom character, there won’t be any enemy groups to choose from. You’ll have to come up with a new one. However, when you make your second custom character, you’ll notice a drop down list next to the enemy group filed that will allow you to pick from existing custom enemy groups.


Custom Enemy Groups

Overview

Just as you can create your own characters in Mission Architect, you can also create your own custom groups. Custom groups are made up of Minions, Lieutenants and Bosses. Creating your own custom group allows you to populate a mission map with all your own enemies, adding even more control and flexibility to your stories.

You can create a custom group from the My Creations tab in the Mission Browser. Just look for the text that reads My Groups. Select that text then select the button that says Create Custom Group. When you hit this button you’ll be taken to another window that will allow you to create or manipulate custom groups. Note, that you can add existing enemies into your custom groups as well.

Available Enemies

On the left hand side of this window, you’ll notice a large column that displays all your custom enemies. There’s also a tab that will let you select any existing enemy in the game. You can select any of these enemies and add them to a new custom group on the right hand side of this window. You do this by selecting the enemy group you want then finding the specific enemy you want to add into your new group. Click on that enemy and you’ll see text that reads Add+ next to it. Clicking that enemy again will add it to your new group. If you want to remove a character from a custom group, click on that character in the window on the right. You’ll then see an option to remove him.

There are tabs in the enemy group window that will filter the enemies to a specific rank. Clicking Minion, Lieutenant or Boss will show you only the enemies in that group of that rank.

When you select an enemy, you’ll notice a preview window on the right will display the enemy and any important information such as name, powers and rank.

Group Level Coverage

At the bottom of the custom group window you’ll notice a bar with markings that go from 1 - 50. This bar is a visual representation of the level ranges of your enemy group. It shows you whether or not you have an enemy within that level range. Ideally, you should have multiple minions, lieutenants and bosses in every level range from 1 - 50.

Thankfully, custom characters automatically scale from 1 - 50 so all you have to worry about is having enough variety to keep the group interesting. This is not the case with standard enemies. Those enemies have a very predefined level range. To that end, when you add existing enemies to your custom groups, make sure you cover your level ranges fully from 1 - 50.