Darmian

Piecmeal built the recent (November) releases of "The Graveyard Shift" for Blue side, And "The Freakish Lab of Dr. Vahzilok" for Red side. So I'd disagree right back atcha on the level of time consumption involved there 🙂 These are two biggish releases and were the first story releases since the previous September when Holymittens' two smaller Rogue/Vigilante arcs became HC's first real new story content for the game. I promise not to get hung up! I was merely seeking clarity because it's so easy for us (or anyone) to misunderstand something someone has written, or read it in a tone the writer never intended. So me asking for further clarity is trying to aid my understanding rather than anything else. Yep. I agree there's plenty of content in the AE, from amazing to just god awful, but it's there. And I like the Dev Choice (I would do, I won one!) But when you do have this resource generating content, why not use it to generate content into the game world?

1. Yes there will be some time consumed, no doubt about it. Still a lot less than it took Piecemeal to build their recent releases. And that's the point. 2. Valid. Maybe they wouldn't. Then apart from them assessing all that's already in there, it could be a clean slate project going forward. Here's the parameters, stick to this, no this, not that, please include a whatever, and if we like it when we test it then in it goes. 3. By "Batman" can I assume you're saying "Positron/Synapse/Liberty" can't be seen to act outside a remit defined for their character (or even possible growth of their character, because Manticore is barely a step away from being full Vigilante), so if they're in one of these they have to be used in certain defined ways? That's perfectly reasonable to ask for. Again, that's my reading of your sentence and I may be wrong. Finally, putting them aside as "good stories to play" but they don't have to be canon? Fine with that! In fact most actual tips (apart from a few that introduce other things) can themselves be dropped into this category. I also don't think stopping muggers in Atlas park and street sweeping is technically "canon", but it happens in the actual game world. Ultimately there's a need I think - you may differ on this - of delivering "new" content of whatever length into the game world faster than we have been getting it. And I love the AE, I do. It's a part of the game experience for me to go through other people's stories, to write my own, but we're still stuck in the unrealness of the AE simulation effect. This doesn't affect farms one bit, they will continue to be pumped out ad nauseum and continue to thrive. In fact if this were ONLY to move story AEs into the real world via the avatars/computer/doors mechanic I mentioned and still have them effectively be "as is" from the AE, not canon, don't water down the story, a What if/Elsewords tale, then that would work too. I just don't know how you would prevent anyone sticking a farm in the real world without Dev oversight. They are recruiting AE community officers/liaisons right now though, so that could be a thing for them? There's tons of lore and stories in this game, it would take a while for a single player to get through it all, but with new content coming once a year - and I'm not denigrating the amount of care and skill and work it takes to do those - that will be played in a few hours tops, well, that's not going to cut it.

Ok, we're obviously coming at this from different angles LOL. Either you have continuity or you don't. We have inconsistencies here and there in the game - mainly from OG devs either not speaking to each other, not passing on notes, people leaving and things not continuing, plenty of stuff - but we do have continuity and we know where the current end line is and that I would leave in the hands of the current devs (please please please don't implement the half thought out nonsense in the AMA about Batallion/Dimensionless!). 1. How is going through an already written AE (or many) and checking if it conforms to pre existing Lore/doesn't contradict pre existing Lore, more time consuming that the level of work Piecemeal put into their recent output? It simply cannot be. 2. A tester GM team would never do this solo, checks and balances, "is this guy a rip off? Or is it an homage like Joe Freitag?" Again, how could that take more work than what went into what we recently got? 3. I'm unsure as to what you mean here. As to moving "the only good stuff to come out of AE" somehow admitting defeat? Of what thought? The Devs' ability to produce more content on a faster timetable? Possibly! Or admitting the failure of anything that doesn't make it out of the AE? Again, I'll disagree. There's plenty of stuff that's crazy fun and good that would never fit in the actual game world, not to mention the stupid amount of farms. And I've played a fair number of players' origin tales that are damn good but frankly you wouldn't see them ever in the game.

Well I had assumed they'd keep track of what AE arcs are released into the wild, so to speak! This isn't supposed to generate just any of the missions in the AE in the outside world, that would be counterproductive to the devs genuinely moving the plot forward. Anything that would be used like this would need to be vetted to be equivalent to the current tip mission level at least, and quite possibly if you wrote an AE they liked but a part contradicted some of their plans they could either not port it into this mechanic or ask you to redo that part of it. The notion that this could be a What if/Elseworlds deal is also nice. Might require a different sort of intro, like a standard script for a narrator that informs you of that and then leads into the story.

Oh it does, and I actually allowed for that. The in game asset doesn't match the text though. Those planes may be fast but they're not carrying a lot of supplies. We DO see a downed plane under the water in First Ward, but since I can't see an airfield in First Ward it may have been going further afield. Where IS Last Bastion anyway? As for Sutter and TinPex? I really like that the final stages of the war don't mirror a levelling process for a character. In a "real" supers world of course lower level guys would be doing stuff before, alongside and after the Superman-alikes. It does need a bit more signposting as to when it all happens though.

Perhaps a suggested handicap you can opt in to for RPers then as part of your difficulty ratings. No base or hospital rez (unless the map has a prison I suppose). You need Awaken, a self rez or one of the team to do it.

The fencing Lorewise is to keep you in and Hamidon out. In First Ward it glitched and now it's just aimed at keeping you AND Hamidon in and away from the rest of Praetoria. And Night Ward is First Ward crossed with the dead lands, mostly.

Could be all Catch 22, like Major Major!

Abandonded Sewer PVP! Let's see a gank-stalker lie in wait surrounded by Rikti Drones!

Now I just need to figure out where Last Bastion goes! LOL.

And you have lined up First Ward pretty much where I think it goes, since that looks like the same road at the edges of both the FW and Imperical City maps.

I just stood in the ruined open air theater beside the Tunnel. That worked. I don't remember an icon popping up though, because it's anywhere in First Ward I think it works like patroller, you have to see if there's an uptick on your closest to completion list.

It's buried about half way down in the last announcement.

As long as they are in the correct shades of black.

They are for the time being, yes. Along with new Dev Choices.

One of these is right. I'd bet it's the actual name over the door. Also, that one would be harder to change! From Investigator Whitworth in Praetoria.

Hurrah!

Apply to everything!

Is there anyone out there who can tell me what the scale of the main Praetorian map is versus the First Ward map? Was just doing a visualization for myself but First Ward is enormously zoomed in relative to the rest of Praetoria.

Oh, that's a pain.

I've done Firewire and that didn't happen for me but I've run into similar issues with contacts in Praetoria. Are you simply moving to the next contact or is talking to him part of the previous contact's stuff? I was doing Helix and had to go talk to Crow, but Crow was missing. However I was able to autocomplete his bit and return to Helix. Just wondering which version of that you're getting.

That's another addition!

Further chats have suggested leveraging the Information kiosks all over Paragon as an option to access the console if someone doesn't have a base computer, or possibly the phone boxes all over the Rogue Isles. Praetoria doesn't have either of those but again there are dedicated Clockwork Vendors for other stuff so...

I've had a few arguments with folk on here about stuff in the game, blah blah, but isn't it great that we're actually back and even able to do that?

Based on further chats around this proposed mechanic I've had the following tweaks suggested to me, and I like them but like anything here are up for discussion. 1) These missions to have an intro tip drop at the correct level range as a prequel, like Mortimer Kal's Wizard's Weakness. Doing that unlocks the contact avatar in whatever area they're located. 2) Contact avatars not to be a green glowing AE type but just to look like a generic NPC, and then to morph to the arc's actual contact when the mission is selected. 2) Contact avatars when in generic form to reel off exactly how to use this entire system in the first place! 4) Apply the 5 doors needed in the correct zone. 5) If you want to bypass the intro tip then the main arc to be available via the base computer like regular tips already are. Variations on this: The initial tip to appear in the Police Scanner/Newspaper/Gold equivalent (Message Man/Clockwork). Some discussion on the places I've suggested as avatar placement areas are that the Red and Blue versions are a bit out of the way. Studio 55 is pretty central to Gold though. Again, we're just looking at leveraging existing assets. As I've said elsewhere, the actual arcs themselves are a whole other kettle of fish to discuss. Thoughts?