Ultimo

Good feedback! I'm always looking for that. I'll tweak the dialog for sure!

Well, it's posted and ready to go... but I'm still not quite happy with everything. The Menders arrive, but they run in from offscreen, which means you can easily miss their dialog, which is kind of essential. More, it doesn't bring in one guy, it brings in THREE of them, and they don't arrive and just stand there, they kind of keep shuffling around, running into one another, and then they follow you around the map. I feel like I need to rework the intro and outro dialog from LCol. Anderson... but that I can tinker with. If anyone wants to give it a try and let me know what they think, that would be great.

Hm, that could work! I'll try that, it's better than the generator I have in it now. I'd hoped for one of those big Portal Corp portals, but of course those aren't available.

So, here's my plan. The mission will still use the same Croatoa map. It will be populated by Japanese troops. The players will be given several objectives. 1) Destroy the Japanese atomic bomb (provided by the Rikti, but the players won't know that yet) 2) Destroy all the Japanese research, and "sanction" all the researchers. 3) Defeat the Japanese leadership. The Japanese Leader will actually be a RIKTI general, with Japanese guards. They'll be animated as if he's talking to them, presumably about the tech he's given them. When they defeat the Rikti general, it will trigger two events. First, it will spawn a MENDER, as an ambush. He'll run in, and drop an exposition bomb telling the players about how the Rikti have come back in time to change history, making Earth easier to conquer in the future, and how they need to destroy the time portal. Second, it will spawn the Rikti time portal, which will be a new objective. There will also be several patrols wandering around, both Japanese and US Troops, a couple of allies to rescue and a Japanese super (who isn't an objective) to defeat. The issues I'm having right now are... There doesn't seem to be a destructible object that looks anything like a time portal. There doesn't seem to be any way to have a MENDER appear as an "ambush." I COULD create another new group called Menders, and populate it with custom characters based on the actual Menders in the game. What say you, how does this sound?

Ya, there's a P2W vendor hand grenade power too, but Custom AE characters can't have those (be nice if they COULD, actually... Pool Powers too). I did think about giving them all smoke grenades instead... but decided against it.

For the Japanese, I gave them the ability to resurrect on defeat, to represent their all-in, fight to the very last attitude, and I gave the Officers Trip Mines, which detonate when they are defeated... a kind of kamikaze attack, though not stated as such. I kept the genin around... ninjas aren't historically accurate, but they're flavourful, if you take my meaning. The Italian troops... I gave the officer a single target heal. Wasn't sure what else to do. I had intended to NOT give the troops a grenade attack, which I intended to give to all the other infantry... but the game doesn't appear to HAVE a thrown grenade attack... so they're not really any worse off than any other infantry.

So, I continue to struggle with the final mission in my WW2 arc. Set at Guadalcanal, the idea is that the Rikti have gone back in time to give the Japanese the atomic bomb, which Ouroboros is trying to prevent. At the same time, the US Army has detected the radiation from the bomb, and has sent in several WW2 era heroes, including the player characters, to destroy the Japanese bomb, researchers and research. During the mission, the players would meet the Ouroboros Mender, and help him to defeat the Rikti and destroy their time portal. The problem is, I'm not sure how to set things up. My first thoughts on the matter are this: The players enter the mission, told by their contact about the threat of a Japanese bomb. The Stalwart Star has already gone in, but contact has been lost. The players must find him if they can... complete his mission either way. Destroy the bomb and the research, and "sanction" the researchers. The fight through Japanese patrols, perhaps help out US Troops fighting in the area, and find the Mender, being held by RIKTI. They free the Mender, and he explains that the Rikti are from the future, trying to change history. He needs their help to destroy the Rikti portal and the Rikti themselves. THIS is the first issue. I can't make the Mender a CONTACT. In a regular mission, I would expect the players to click on him, and a dialog box would open with all the necessary exposition. AE doesn't let me do that. I could have it appear as a Clue, but players often ignore those... so I'm not sure how to make this work. The second thing is the selection of map. Ideally, the map would be some kind of forest/jungle (I've been using Croatoa maps), but would have some kind of underground tunnels they could enter to find the research... but I'm not sure which map, if any, has that. In the end of it, they don't find the Stalwart Star, as he's fallen into the future through the Rikti portal. The players can't wait for him to return, they need to end the threat and destroy the portal (this is part of the origin story of one of my characters, the Stalwart Star, kind of a Captain America homage). If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions, I'd welcome them. Thanks in advance.

Well, I appreciate the info and input! My next dilemma is figuring out how to make the final mission of the arc more interesting. At present, you go in, rescue a couple of heroes and wander aimlessly destroying some stuff. It lacks any Oomph. It's a bit tedious, and not the best way to finish the arc. The plot of the final mission is supposed to connect to the origin story of my Captain America themed character, the Stalwart Star. The idea is that the Rikti have come back in time to give the atomic bomb to the Japanese, and disrupt history. Ouroboros has sent a Mender back to stop it. The US Army has detected the radioactivity related to the bomb, and sent the Stalwart Star in to try and destroy the bomb and any research the Japanese have done... but they've lost contact with him. In reality, he got involved in a brawl with the Rikti and fell through time into the present day. Of course, the players are to have minimal knowledge of any of this backstory (at first). They're to be sent in to locate and help Stalwart Star, or finish his mission. The thing is, I'm not sure how to make it work (I expect the AE forum is a better place for this part of the discussion, so I'll post there as well, but I thought perhaps you guys might offer some thoughts too). My first thought was that the player would enter the mission and fight their way through Japanese patrols, maybe helping out US troops engaged in battles, while the look for the Japanese researchers. When they find them, they've been defeated and a Mender is about to be killed by Rikti. The players save him, and he tells them the backstory, giving them the new objective to destroy the Rikti time portal. The thing is, the players can't actually TALK to the Mender, so he can't assign a new objective. Anyway, I'm still pondering this one.

Not to confuse things further, but... I actually named them "Genin," since I gave them the ability to summon Genin, and I wanted it to be a little unclear which of them was the summoner... just to make them a little more challenging to fight.

I'm still unclear on the problem. Mystic Flight has the Translocation secondary power. Flight has the Afterburner power. Are they not otherwise identical? Hover affects each one the same way, and is a second power choice in either case.... so I'm not sure what the issue is.

Ya, I meant to say "AMONG the first," but failed to make the edit before I posted. My point stands though.

I've always thought that was an unfair characterization. Remember, the French were the first to be conquered, yet they never stopped fighting back. Also remember that France controlled most of the Europe and even much of the 'New World' not so long before that... under a fellow named Napoleon.

Actually, I find Arcane Bolt is VERY useful for Controllers, as it gets double damage on controlled enemies. Controllers desperately lack damage from their OWN powers, so Arcane Bolt is a godsend. I'm not sure if Enflame has the same effect, it's hard to tell with all the numbers flying by...

I'm not sure I understand. Hover isn't part of the Flight power, there's no reason you can't take it when using Mystic Flight. I love that Mystic Flight includes the Teleport aspect, because that gives me Teleport without having to take a separate power.

I do actually use the 5th Column at several points in the arc, though just as themselves. I wanted to make custom armies for all the armies, so they would be balanced against one another, as they fight each other at several points.