Darmian

There's one other thing that I do to a small extent, and it stems from years of running TT RPGS, and that's to have the odd cameo here and there of "crossing groups" or "crossing individuals". Now, that's to give the world a fuller feel. I completely 100 per cent disagree with the notion that if a thing is in the mission it must be related to what you are doing right now. Sometimes Crey have MORE THAN ONE EXPERIMENT IN A HUGE LAB...you know? So you HAVE to keep it to a minimum, but while solo, you're not the only person in the world! Are you robbing a bank? Oh, Hellions are robbing it too, but for their own reasons, nothing to do with your plot. Did you run into the PPD? How did they know it was you? They didn't! They've been chasing Hellions! We're all reasonably intelligent here. Yes to clarity, yes to not willfully deceiving the player, but I draw the line at hand holding.

Nope. I have a connected set of Praetorian AEs (see my sig) and they're all neutral too, because unfortunately those options aren't there. I suppose if they were then there would have to be two more AE Badges added, one for Loyalist and one for Resistance, like the Heroic et cetera badges for Primal AE efforts.

Addendum. I label all mine as "Neutral" for morality. So any alignment can fit in, though a hero might find themselves being a bit greyer than usual, or a villain a bit more heroic than you'd expect. And it's a necessity for Praetoria based AEs. And apart from one I can't add it to, if needed I've marked arcs with "Not suitable for low level characters."

Echoing @cranebump, as someone who tries to write a story, hoping against hope that it's half decent, I've honed my style, for want of a better word, to several things: (1) I always use large text (dating from a player with weak eyesight complaining). (2) I format to leave readable chunks rather than the blank wall of text you sometimes get. (3) Color coding text so that pertinent information pops at you, plus color coding who is speaking also helps. (4) If I have to use an outdoor map I will but indoor ones are preferable. Outdoor spawn points are heinous. I tested this with a tiny outdoor map that allowed 5 collectibles. I had 5, and nope, you can't force them to appear in the order you wish, so you literally can't give a hint to a player to help them with a runaround. (5) Nav bar aid. I like to have objectives delineated where necessary as "Defuse Bomb [Third Floor]". So if you're on the first floor you know you can speed through the second floor. (6) My initial work doesn't have it but later ones do (might go back and do it) but I've taken to numbering all clues and giving an X to a clue that comes from a non essential glowie. And for clues from each mission to be assigned a different color. So all Mission 1 clues are yellow, all Mission 2 are blue, et cetera, (7) It's my aim (I don't always succeed) that each boss/clue/encounter met in a mission builds on the story. (8) I like Easter Eggs! My stuff is riddled with snippets of CO* lore, from the game/comics/novels. So if you spot them and get them, cool. If you spot them and don't, well that's how Easter eggs work TBH. (9) I have yet to get the hang of writing souvenirs! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As a player I look for playability, readability, story and consistency. And if I start running into things like constant fire damage mobs I will just quit. If I wanted to play a fire farm I would. Other stuff? I think much of what I look for has already been said, save my initial test: If your contact just has the standard AE program data then you're off to a bad start! Repetition. No issues with that. Essentially all arcs are sleight of hand to hide the fact that you need to defeat a boss/click a thing, but if you write a 5 mission arc and every single one is "Rescue the person", then I'll probably not play another of yours. And then there are the arcs I play where I think "I wish I'd thought of that!" Sadly those are few, because once you have a reasonable grasp on the tools you have an idea of what can or can't be done.

Laughable? Well maybe, but it was cringe then, and it would have probably have been cringe in 2004. For my money's worth it's not even cringe, it's actually crap. You're absolutely right that if pursued this would involve a lot of work on new material/models/maps, possibly powers, who knows, and we're simply not in a situation where that's viable now, or for the foreseeable future. HC right now, blessings in disguise perhaps, are in a position to forge a different path away from the constant "Bigger/Faster/More" sequelitis that plagues many a thing, because obviously "The Coming Storm" would have to have been "Bigger/Faster/More" than the Praetorian War, blah blah. Just another cycle of painting yourself into a corner and then hoping the room magically gets bigger. We shall see.

Well, personally I'd prefer revamps to be things like the upgrade Atlas got rather than the complete change DA got.

You COULD retain both aspects of Perez Park, the original Hazard Zone feel, and add the floating thing, with an application of the First Ward/Night Ward light paths. Simply put, Anything in there simply isn't part of the original. So don't go in! Now how you'd implement that is another thing entirely!

I love when that happens. Ok, you don't get XP perhaps, but JUSTICE!

And added this in M1 of Dark Deeds in Galaxy City: Part Two. Intro Accept text: When you find Burgh he says:

It can happen though. It's just different than the other two sides, well at least on Reunion. That's partly due to a dedicated Praetorians SG that will help out any Gold (when we're on obviously) that needs it. So while I hardly ever see 8 member teams there I do see 3, 4 and 5 member teams reasonably regularly. Plus part of the SG supports those mad enough to want to get a Gold to 50 (there's a few of us!) and that helps with teaming in First Ward and Night Ward. So, possible but needs particular circumstances.

No, it isn't said then, but you don't really get time to talk to him much. Crey is mentioned but mainly as a former employer. And just rephrased this part of M4's intro: Ok, thanks for that, @DougGraves. As we all know, you can get too close to your own text sometimes, so that what is crystal clear to you may not be to everyone else!

I've added a Mission End Clue to M1. M2 now has an insert: M3 is rephrased thus: And Arbiter Kinsey now says this when at low health: That might add SOME clarity. We'll see.

Cheers for that. I'll have a ponder on how to rephrase it. Plus Burgh DID go off book, since he made a bid for freedom from GW by contacting the Family. (I know I'd run!)

You free someone that the rogue faction vitally needs, and then track them down because they'll be taken in by the faction, and those are the ones you are actually hunting. Any suggestions on how I can clarify that further? Looks like I failed in finding a balance between "this is the plot!" and "let the players discover the plot". Level 19? Ah, they are labelled not suitable for lower level. Dark Deeds in Galaxy City: Part One doesn't have that though, because I can't edit it since it is Dev/HOF status.

Well, you're in the Rogue Isles and the rules are different there, and you're effectively being morally manipulated by GW because one of the team is still missing and so on. But if you're going for a "pure hero" feel then yeah, you're not supposed to feel good about these! And if you step out of the mission and speak to her she says things like this (from M1): " Ghost Widow is not impressed by your return: You haven't forgotten that I know where you live? Where everyone you know and care for lives? Yes of course I'm threatening you. Now go back and do what I asked." As for the ally in M2? They should have appeared at the beginning. {Brief pause while I check] Yes, there he is. Sign in to the security desk and he appears, all suited up. It's literally the first set of glass paned rooms after the entrance lobby and corridor. So he should be with you from almost the get go until the end, though he's set to defensive so that he doesn't just go for anyone you meet! Yes, this set of missions does tie together, but they're more jigsaw puzzle pieces than the first arc.

He's tried it! Did like that, found the rest of the game, to quote him, "completely f**cking toxic". And quit it.

Not a typo but a needed change. If you decide to auto complete a mission and you get the "You must wait X days before you can use this again" routine, it should not say contact customer service if there's a bug.

Make ouro missions like AE. Quasi Task Force/Strike Force but you can still invite others along AFTER you've started. Hell, make actual TFs/SFs like that, why not? I mean you can open them solo, why not add the invite option? Have I mentioned this already? I may have, I didn't read back through the thread.

While this is probably blindingly obvious to you, the order of the AE arcs is in my signature. Feel free to try the Pre War Praetorian ones, but they're a separate story, an attempt to write more for Gold side that fits in. Whether I succeeded or not is up to the players really. I hope I did.

I find it handy when testing, never mind playing stuff. Did the boss speak? Oh hell, they all spoke at once! Gotta fix that, and so on.

I dunno, maybe ranging from 8 mill to 250 mill depending on the character? It's literally not important to me. I just need my peeps to be able to get by and I have fun. And I periodically spend time writing in the AE, which is a big part of playing the game for me, but that doesn't earn you anything apart from a few tickets if I'm lucky enough to have players find my stuff. But everyone has their own niche.

I don't know if you do this @DougGraves, or others, but I keep a small floating tab 4 between my Target and Nav reticules that only has NPC Dialog and Cutscene Captions in it. Saves me scrolling through chatter and I see if anyone has spoken, even if it's only text movement caught out of the corner of my eye.

Nah, we're not really. Wibbly wobbly timey wimey, the Menders predicted Atlas would bite the dust, but it was Galaxy instead, we're not stuck with it. They'll probably deal with it somehow though.

Hi, @DougGraves! They are all finished, however I'm happy to take notes from any players, I mean how else am I going to get better? But detail is cool too, and if I have a single request, let me know if the through line of the plot hangs together. There's a few things I've done that I hope worked, but the AE limits are what they are. And I hope you have fun! If you squint a bit it slides into canon just about, with some standing in the shadows going on LOL. Usual caveat I gave people too, read the clues, they help! And while you're an old hand at this, no sprint or you'll lose the escorts!

LOL, I know at least three, one a RL friend who just enjoys it! He tried farming, found it tedious, and then went to AH. And loves placing bids and waiting and all that palaver.