Ultimo

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.

Ya, that's what I ended up having to do. Tedious, I'd hoped there was another way. At least I didn't have to rewrite all the dialog and everything.

So, I've been trying to tidy up my files. My old pc crashed, but I was able to save much of what was on the old system, and transferred it to this one. That meant there were a ton of duplicate and/or old characters in my Critters folder, and duplicate/inaccurate groups. I thought, I'll just go into the folders and delete the stuff I don't need, rename everything so it's consistent and that should be good! However, now the game kept creating duplicates from nowhere. The list of AE characters had duplicates of many characters... but there was NO files for them in the critters folder. I thought perhaps it was duplicating them from an arc I'd made, my WW2 arc. If I deleted all my characters and groups, then started up that arc, it would CREATE the necessary characters and groups. However, since I'd renamed some of them for consistency, it made duplicates of those characters, using the OLD names. For example, I had a character named "The Incendiary Man.critter" which I renamed "Incendiary Man WW2.critter". However, when I go to edit the arc, it creates a new copy of the character using the old "The Incendiary Man.critter" name. The question now is, HOW do I get it to stop making new copies of the character, every time I try to edit the arc?

It's called The World at War, it's currently published, but I want to tweak it some... especially the final mission. If you do give it a go, I'd be glad to hear any thoughts you have about it.

No, I don't do farms. It's 5 missions set during WW2, but they're not directly connected to one another. I don't even know what the experience rewards are like, I just play it for the fun of it.

I'd love to have included some kind of air war, but there's not really anything I can do with that... the best I could manage was to give a few of the supers flight abilities. I know there's a symphony power set now... is there a bagpipe weapon to put in? I'll have to look... The arc has 5 missions: North Africa Sicily France Berlin Guadalcanal I'm still kind of struggling with the last mission, but as I say, at the moment, I'm more concerned with getting the troops right.

I know this is General Discussion, but my needs are more general, even though it's related to AE material... so I'm posting it here so I can get more response than I might in the AE forum. I'm hoping to get some input from people with some knowledge of the history of WW2, and the armies involved. So, I'm kind of revamping my WW2 arc. There are several custom groups representing the various armed forces involved in the various theatres of war, and I'm trying to make them all distinctive in their own particular ways... but I'm having some difficulty deciding on exactly what to give them. I'm trying to follow a basic format. Each group will consist of an Officer, Infantry and Special Forces character, all Minion level (I don't want them to be too strong, the heroes should be mowing through them with relative ease). Officers will have a ranged weapon (usually Pistols) and a support power. Infantry will have a ranged weapon (Burst or Slug). I originally gave them NO second power, but I think I'll give them a Grenade. The Special Forces would also get a second power. Special Forces would depend on the specific nation. For example, the Germans get Stormtroopers, the US gets Marines. Where I'm having some issues is with the Officers, mainly. Their particular support ability is intended to reflect the character of the army in question. For example, the Germans ruled by fear, so giving the German Officer Fearsome Gaze is in character for that army. The British are known for their discipline and "stiff upper lip," so Clear Mind seems appropriate. I'm posting here to see if anyone can offer any suggestions/rationale for the armies and abilities. Here's what I have so far... US ARMY Officer - Pistols/Fortitude (US known for tenacity) Infantry - Slug (M14 rifle)/Grenade Marine - Burst (M1 Thompson)/????? -Notably, the US did use Flamethrowers during WW2, so I considered this too. UK ARMY Officer - Pistols/Clear Mind (UK known for discipline) Infantry - Slug (Enfield 14)/Grenade Commando - Burst (Sten)/????? Canadian? Australian? South African? RUSSIAN ARMY Officer - Pistols/Gang War (Russia was noted for their strength in numbers) Infantry - Burst (PPSH-41)/Molotov? Russian Sniper - Snipe/Hide (Russian snipers were renowned) -I also considered a Comissar character, but I'm not sure if he's needed. GERMAN ARMY Officer - Pistols/Fearsome Gaze Infantry - Slug (K98k)/Grenade Stormtrooper - Burst (MP40)/???? -I was thinking of something to increase the speed of the Stormtroopers, blitzkrieg, you know? ITALIAN ARMY Officer - Pistols/?????? - What are the Italians known for? Infantry - Slug (Carcano)/NOTHING (Italians were known to be less effective troops) Bersagliere - Burst (MP40)/Aim (elite marksmen) JAPANESE ARMY Officer - Katana/Caltrops? Infantry - Slug (Arisaka)/Grenade Ninja - Katana/Hide + Ninjas (I know, not historical, but it's flavourful) -I had thought perhaps a Kamikaze, but that seemed... insensitive, so I thought I'd leave that out. FRENCH RESISTANCE Infiltrator - Time Bomb/Hide Resistance - Pistols/Hide Resistance - Burst/Hide Any thoughts would be helpful! (EDIT) I should also ask... does anyone know if there's a list somewhere, of the heroes and villains who were active during WW2? I know a couple of them, but I'd like to be able to add some others.

So, I'll give the example to explain what I'm suggesting. I made a mission which is set in Mercy Island. I created a group of custom enemies I called "The Noobs." They are meant to represent the various player characters that are running around in Mercy. I usually create them as patrols set to Rogue, so they attack everyone. They're pretty well all Lieutenant level characters. The problem I have is that it will often spawn multiples of the same characters. For example, if I've got one guy in the group called Red Mist, there might be more than one of him on the map. What I'm suggesting is making a setting for custom characters to make them UNIQUE, so that there can be only ONE of that character on the map at any time.

EVERY fight should be a fun fight. It's baffling to me that you would suggest otherwise. Scaling the intermediate Boss rank down is something that would need to be figured out. He'd have to go down to either Boss or Lieutenant level, and I think Lieutenant would be TOO weak, so I suggested Boss. The alternative would be ANOTHER intermediate step between Lieutenant and Boss, and I don't think that's needed. Boss level is reasonable. You're free to disagree. Having a step between Boss and Elite Boss would absolutely allow for more sensitivity when creating characters, because there would be an intermediate step between the extremes. Like the Three Bears, one is too weak, one is too strong... we only need the one that's Juuuust Right. There are times when I'd make a character a Boss. There are times when I'd make an Elite Boss, or even an Arch-Villain. I'd continue to do so when I felt it appropriate, and so would others. There are MANY times when I wish I could make a character that is in between the Boss and Elite Boss. I believe you understand the suggestion and the reasons for it. You don't agree that it's useful or needed, and that's fine. I'm not going to keep arguing for no reason.

You asked, "Why does the ally boss/EB need to be a 'fun fight'?" so I explained that you might end up fighting an ally. Your objection seems to be predicated on your assertion that Boss level enemies are equal to player characters. I don't agree, and I think you'd find many don't. There are doubtless many who would suggest Elite Bosses are equivalent to player characters. I don't agree with that, either. In any case, having a step between the two allows for more sensitivity when creating enemies (or allies) for AE arcs. You're right, I haven't said what this middle tier would scale down to. As it is, if Bosses are turned off, a Boss would appear as a Lieutenant. Since this new rank would be more powerful than a Boss, it probably should be more powerful than a Lieutenant, so I guess it should scale down to the Boss rank... same as an Elite Boss.

An Ally CAN be set to turn on the player. Either way, the point is to create a step between Bosses and Elite Bosses. Refer back to me example of Spider-Man vs Scorpion or Electro. They're clearly more of a challenge than a Boss would be, but not as overwhelming as an Elite Boss would be. Again I say, what's the reason for the resistance? If you prefer to use EBs in your missions, adding a level of enemy between Boss and EB isn't going to stop you. You're objecting to increased flexibility for reasons I cannot understand.

I already pointed out that making the character a Boss makes them too squishy. Allies appear in the missions at the rank they're created at. Only enemy Elite Bosses scale down. That means an Ally created as an Elite Boss will appear as an Elite Boss, and not scale down. Again, MAKING him as a Boss means he's too squishy to be comparable to the player. That's for CUSTOM characters. Characters already part of the game (like the Archon/War Wolves) scale properly, as far as I know. Either way, having the character appear as a Boss means he's too squishy to be a fun fight. Player characters are all substantially more powerful than Lieutenants or Bosses. Bosses can often be more damaging, but they're not sturdy enough to compare to the player characters. One on one, a fight between a player character and a Boss NPC will go to the player the great majority of the time. This is reversed for Elite Bosses. The damage they can take makes them more fun to fight, because you aren't going to beat them in a couple of seconds, but the damage they do is so high that they can easily beat the player, even in one attack. Elite Bosses are clearly more powerful than player characters. This is why I'm suggesting a step between them, with the damage of the Boss and the durability of the Elite Boss. It offers people making AE missions (and potentially the devs making regular content) a bit more flexibility. Nor mine. In the past, I suggested lowering EB (and AV) damage somewhat, and was flamed half to death for even suggesting it. That's why I'm suggesting a separate rank. It doesn't take away or change anything that's already there, it just adds something to provide another option. As mentioned, I see no harm in it, and the benefit of greater flexibility in storytelling.