Ultimo

OK! All five missions are up, and ready for some testing! Give it a try, and let me know what you think. In particular: Are the enemies too difficult? Too easy? Are there any obvious flaws in the plot, or spelling errors. Are any of the custom characters (many of whom are based on existing characters) TOO similar to the characters they're based on? Can you suggest any changes to the mechanics of the missions that might better represent what's going on in the story. Of course, I welcome any and all feedback! Thanks!

So, I'm working on the 4th mission in my story arc, but I'm having a couple of problems. The idea is, the map should be EMPTY except for a couple of allied I've provided. You go to the back of the map, where you will talk to the last ally (Citadel). When you talk to Citadel, it's supposed to spawn a defendable computer. The idea is that the enemy are supposed to come in and try to destroy it, but you're there to try and prevent them. This presents the first problem, the defendable object isn't THERE until you talk to Citadel, so you don't know WHERE it is, to defend it. The second problem is that it spawns enemies all around it, the moment it spawns. They never try to get to it, and never really try to destroy it, they're just kind of standing there until you arrive. This brings me to the next issue, that enemies that are supposed to spawn once this objective is complete aren't spawning properly. There are supposed to be 10 patrols and 2 bosses that spawn, but I've seen maybe 5 patrols, and the bosses NEVER spawn. Finally, the next thing is that the mission is marked COMPLETED once you defend the object. You still have to get to the entrance to escape, but I'm thinking perhaps the fact the mission is completed is preventing the spawning of the patrols and bosses. Is there a way to make it an objective to get to the exit? Help! (I'm going to try having everything spawn when you talk to Citadel, see if that works)

I've actually changed him up a bit. He's based on my Warhammer 40k Chaos Lord, who had a daemonic sword that devoured souls.... so I really prefer him having a sword. Ideally, he'd have a pistol to supplement the sword, but that's not possible, so I gave him some blasts instead. This should also make him a little easier to take down, because there's no more Invulnerability on him. Let me know if he's too easy now.

Ok! Up to three missions now. Working on the fourth one. First three are published if anyone wants to try them, and provide some feedback. Thanks again!

Ya, that's Marko. He hits pretty hard too... certain power sets are like that, Beam Rifle (which the minions use) is another that hits kind of hard... but at least the minions use only one or two attacks.

Tasker. Ya, I took my L15 Brute in there, and ALMOST got him, but then found myself permastunned, slept, held, and then stunned some more. He was down to around 10% health, too. It's the Psionic attacks, they definitely sting.

Ya, I should have posted, I've added the second mission in the arc, it was pretty straightforward. I had to fix Angrief in the first mission, he nearly oneshotted my Tank character (who is L30 and pretty decently tough), so I had to change his power sets. I gave him the Electric Control set, but I'm finding he is still kind of overpowered against melee characters, because he zeroes their endurance in 2 seconds, no matter what they do... which means you can't do anything against him... and I HATE that in any enemy. If the players aren't allowed to do anything, there's no GAME, if you see what I mean. I may reset the game scale so it's all L50... that DOES raise lower level characters to that point, yes?

I could really use some feedback on this first mission... I just tried it with my Tanker and found I couldn't do damage to the boss (Angrief) AT ALL... and the boss has no defensive abilities at all. He's supposed to be one of the WEAKER bosses... if he's completely invulnerable to any character, then I'm concerned at the difficulty.

Ok, I changed the first map, the new one is better anyway. So, I published it. There's five missions, but only the first one is really playable. I'm hoping people will play the first mission and give some feedback. It's up to you if you try the other missions, but they're very unfinished at present. Any thoughts would be useful. If you DO play the subsequent missions, I'm most concerned by the difficulty of the bosses. It's all VERY MUCH a work in progress... but I appreciate any thoughts or criticisms.

What the title says, can we get a Minimal FX option for Field Operative? It's part of a "realistic" gadget set, so it would be nice if we could do away with the constant glow and the endless mind numbing droning hum.

Yep, I've redesigned him a couple of times, but I'm much happier with him as a Blaster. The Devices set is WAY better than Traps, and the beam rifle just suits his Mad Scientist vibe. Much happier with him like this. I appreciate the feedback!

Well... the thing is, I want to be able to play and enjoy the missions myself, and most of my characters are around L20-30. Against even the WEAKEST attacks from an EB, they crumple like tinfoil. Only the Tankers can last any longer, but it's not by much. If the don't want to change the existing levels of foes, perhaps they can add a level in between Boss and Elite Boss... where it would have the Boss level damage, but Elite Boss level health.

The first power in the set (Single Shot) has a bugged animation when flying. Instead of firing from the airborne pose, it instead fires as if you're standing on the ground. I believe all the other powers in the set work correctly.

So, to provide some numbers. I ran the tests with Mr. Mech, my Beam Rifle/Atomic Manipulation Blaster. He has 1093 health. My average attack does around 120 damage. I created a version of my Tanker, the Canadian Shield. The AE version of him has 778 health and does 239 damage with Hurl, as a BOSS. As an ELITE BOSS, but spawned as a BOSS, he has 2040 health and does 398 damage with Hurl. As an ARCH VILLAIN, but spawned as an ELITE BOSS, he has 4858 health and Hurl does 558 damage. As a Boss, my Blaster will defeat him, potentially with ease... and this is a TANKER character, so sturdier than, say, a Mastermind or Controller or something. As an EB/Boss, my Blaster is doomed. There's NO WAY he can do enough damage before he's wiped out. Three hits, and he's dead... and those three hits will come in less than 2 seconds. Beyond this is irrelevant, really. So what we have are enemies that are too flimsy as Bosses, but do decent damage, and sturdy enough as Elite Bosses, but do too much damage. A middle ground is needed. My thinking is as I said, just reduce the damage output of EBs and AVs. This is actually consistent with something I learned YEARS ago playing pen and paper Champions. The enemies the books provided were built much like the enemies here, where they did more and more and more damage, to the point where the heroes couldn't possibly withstand them. I cut their damage back to a level similar to what the heroes could do, and all of a sudden they were a LOT more fun to fight. Battles weren't over in a blink, so there was more drama, and more tactical variety. The heroes are more fun to play if they get to fight back. The battles get drawn out, so you get to use your attacks more often, and that's more fun than attacking once (or being defeated instantly). Doing this might also remove the need to have EBs and AVs spawn as anything other than EBs and AVs.

So, I've been really struggling with making an AE arc with appropriate enemies that anyone can fight. I've been considering it for a while, I feel the problem is excessive damage from Bosses or better. Basically, if I make an enemy as a BOSS, they're far too flimsy for a start, and are defeated far too quickly. Their damage is HIGH, and they're capable of taking out my Blaster character in 2-3 hits (and they WILL hit that often at least). Making them ELITE BOSS level increases their damage so much that they'll take out my Blaster character in 2 hits, and then, only because they can't oneshot him. More sturdy characters can take a couple more hits, but as EBs they have so much health there's no way to do enough damage to them before you're defeated. Therein lies the problem. Bosses: Too flimsy, damage is a bit high. Elite Bosses: VERY sturdy, damage is excessive. Arch Villains: VERY sturdy, damage is excessive. I think what's needed is to scale back EB damage output to Boss levels. This makes them superior to Bosses because they're more durable, but still manageable enemies to fight. In any case, some kind of review of the power levels of these characters is called for, it's just impossible to find a balance point at present.

It's quick, and can knock foes down. If I want hard hitting, I have other options than Charged Shot.

I have a couple of characters with Beam Rifle now, and I've noticed a bug with the animation when flying. Firing Single Shot puts the character into a stance as if he's standing on the ground. Other attacks take an airborne stance correctly. It seems just to be the one power.

I'll point out that I only do this BECAUSE of travel suppression. If I could run at speed within the fight, I would stay in range and use my speed more normally. As it is, the only way my speedy character can be speedy in a fight is by doing drivebys.

I've been doing this with my Speedster character. I leave Super Speed running, get some distance, then queue my attack and run past the enemy and out of melee range. By the time the power activates, I'm out of range of his retaliation, and my attack does damage. Granted, it takes a while to defeat ANYTHING, but it's safe!

Ya, but I wanted something like a personal energy blast from his epic pool... something his battlesuit would provide as opposed to his beam rifle. The setup I posted offers around 14.5% defense and 46.4% resistance to smashing/lethal, 30% to energy. That's with SOs. I expect with IOs or sets, it would only get better. I would have liked a PFF, but that's more of a Dr. Doom thing, less so a Luthor thing.

I find them really versatile. Most characters in the comics have a mix of some kind of defense (invulnerable, agile, or what have you), with some melee and some ranged capability. Mix in a bit of Fighting or Flight pool melee attacks, and you can create characters capable of withstanding the enemy while dispatching them up close or at a distance. I tend to make mostly homage characters. My version of Iron Man is a Sentinel, but so is my Aquaman homage (Water Blast, Willpower and Fighting). I like the class quite a bit.

Well, he fits better into the mad scientist version of Luthor... which is FINE. In fact, that's the version of the character I grew up with, so I'm happy with that. Having said that, he IS rather squishy. The idea is that at later levels he can "resemble" his armoured self. This is my plan for the character, what say you all? [/img] View This Build In MRB (Ok, this isn't how I expected the build to get posted...)

So... I've recreated the character with Beam Rifle/Devices... so far, I'm liking it better. We'll see as he goes.

I seem to remember him using two pistols in the last episode of JLU, but the animations are awful in the game. Having said that, what's the Devices set like for Blasters? How durable can a Blaster be made with pools and such?

I'd originally planned to give him the energy blasts from the Epic pool, to simulate his armour, along with Tough, Weave, Maneuvers and maybe Combat Jumping and Hover for Defense. Roll in the Bots and Force Fields, and he's pretty durable... It's just that I'm not sure he "feels" like Luthor, if you take my meaning. Think about Luthor in the JLAU, when did he ever use robots to attack anyone? In that awesome episode where he teamed with the Injustice Gang... he also never used bots or anything like them. It's really what made me reconsider making him a Mastermind. I've considered using some variation of traps/devices, but I find them REALLY underwhelming... at least, for a player character. Perhaps as an AE character it would be different, but I suspect he'd be KOed before he could deploy anything of use.