Zhym

I thought you hit Chimera right on the mark, personally.

I think you're on to something there. Most red side is typical cartoon villainy. Vernon von Grun wants to be a mad scientist, Aeon is a mad scientist, and all Recluse wants to do is take over the world (is that so wrong?). But Phipps takes pleasure in grinding his boots on the faces of the downtrodden. He gets off on it. Burning books and kidnapping schoolteachers who are teaching Freaks to be better people aren't steps to some greater plan; they are the plan. Ends in themselves. Yeah, that's all too realistic of a motivation. Maybe that's why his arcs all seem to have "outs." You can let Miss Francine escape. Same with the rebels. You "fail" the missions, but the post-mission text in each case is far from chiding. And in the arc with Bane Spider Hugo, everyone you "capture" escapes anyway. Phipps doesn't actually accomplish much. Two other red side arcs have similar issues: Lt. Harris's "Price of Friendship" and Jezebel Jones's "Johnny's Squeeze." Harris is a creepy homicidal ex, and I really wish there were alternate endings available for that arc. It's a shame, too, because completing it kicks Longbow out of Fort Darwin, which is a worthy goal. As for Jezebel, "Johnny's Squeeze" is played less darkly, but the central theme is still about kidnapping a woman and forcing her to be someone's "girlfriend" against her will. Ugh. And it would have been so easy to have the same general plot but without the creepiness: instead of Johnny deciding he wants this woman and having her kidnapped, she initiates things (fan mail with a revealing photo, maybe?) and he sends the villain to rescue her. Having her initiate things even makes more sense given the rest of the story. I really like the idea of Westin Phipps in Hell. Nice touch. I'm now toying with the idea of an arc where you take down Phipps once and for all. Gally Ido would probably be the contact. Hugo Figures could be a mission ally. The goal would be not just to arrest or beat up Phipps, but to destroy him: turn Arachnos against him and replace him with someone who would use Haven House for what it pretends to be. And yes, there'd probably be a mission where you beat him up, because that would be fun. But I'm not sure what the general outline of the story would be yet.

It's not hard to run The Graveyard Shift without defeating either Salamander or Grey Matter. In the mission where they appear they're fighting each other, so it's easy for one of them to defeat the other before you get a chance to.

The short version? Flight powers are your friend. Ever since they revamped travel powers a while back, it hasn't been hard to cap flight speed. Combined with Evasive Maneuvers for better flight control, it's easy to get the badges by flying through the courses. I created a second build on my badger just so he could have a slotted flight power instead of his usual super jump.

Now I almost want to make an AR/Regen Sentinel, just to pile all the suck into one character. Almost.

Drat. I might just have to write one, then. Or, heyyyy... @Darmian, @cranebump, @Ankylosaur—do any of you take commissions? ;)

Aw, man. Westin Phipps? Screw that guy. Even my villains are like, "I'm not having anything to do with him." I don't suppose there's already an AE arc where Westin Phipps gets his comeuppance?

This made me curious how that compares to official story content in the game. My main (70s Man, the guy in the picture over there to the left) has done every mission arc, blue side, red side, and gold side—almost all of it (except gold side) while leveling, switching alignments through tip missions. The Information terminal tells me that he's completed 2,898 tasks, failed 11, completed 198 flashback arcs, and run a total of 54 AE story arcs. (I'm surprised he's run that many AE arcs—I didn't really get into AE at all until recently.) Oddly enough, I don't see anywhere that says how many AE missions he's run. Anyway, that 2,898 tasks probably includes lots of non-story arc missions (he's currently vet level 231 and Michal in Atlas Park tells me he's spent 1127 hours on patrol, so all those iTrials and general crimefighting after finishing the regular content are probably a large number of those 2,898 tasks). A different character, who did all the red side content before switching to blue, has completed 1,312 tasks. But it says that another character, who leveled up the "fast way" (for me) by just doing the Task Force Commander task forces and Maria Jenkins arc and generally just teaming, has only completed 67 tasks—which doesn't seem like enough to have included everything he did while teaming. Where was I going with this, again? Oh, yeah, something about how many missions are in the official story content in the game. And, yeah, I guess I have no idea. I mean, I could go to the wiki and add them all up, but...no. Frankly, what amazes me is not the number of missions Engineria has done—it's the number of screenshots you've posted!

Here's what I tend to do when I want to alt to join a TF: Send a tell: "I'm in for the TF. Mind if I alt?" TF leader either says "Sure" (or "Sorry, just filled"). (In theory, the TF leader could say, "No, eff off," but I've never seen it happen in the wild.) If I know who I'll be logging back in as (which is 90% of the time), I say, "Thanks. BRB with <Alt Name>." When I log in, I send a tell to the TF leader to tell them I'm ready. I don't even have to remember their name—having received a message from the TF leader on the previous character lets me use backspace to reply to them on the new character. Easy peasy! Takes about two minutes. And as far as I can tell, no one gets heartburn.

Wow. That's...gonzo. Yes, let's go with gonzo. Some cool ideas in there, but I've had five year-olds tell me stories that were more coherent. ;)

(And that statement is, "I'm only fighting crime while on break from my job as a mall-Santa's helper elf.")

Then again, this guy is one of my characters, so I'm not exactly an authority on tasteful costumes:

Gee, @TerroirNoir2, I was just thinking of a nice holiday scarf and cap, or maybe giving Engineria's regular armor a holiday re-coloring. But that's...well, that's a statement, is what that is.

BTW, shouldn't Engineria have a holiday-themed costume for this? ;)

So, basically, it's like The Hallmark Channel, but an entire dimension?

What kind of map did you have in mind, BTW? AE authors have made some really creative use of the available maps. And most AE story-mode players know the engine's limitations, so we tend to set our suspension of disbelief on "high" for things like that.

I believe at least part of the reason custom maps aren't available is that pathing (i.e., how mobs and NPC move around the map) is sort of hand-coded into each map. Custom maps can really confuse the AI.

Out (or more accurately, both, but also out). When I re-ran it just now, Bocor was in the room with the urns (thankfully). The mission text says I have "45 minutes to find Bocor and get him out," so the escort part's not a surprise, at least. Of course, the warning about having only 45 minutes would have been more useful before accepting the mission. :) Not that 45 minutes is short—at 0/x1 I was able to run the mission, type this reply, and edit it, all within 10 minutes (but note that I'm not suggesting you shorten the timer!). BTW, my strategy on the replay, even at 0/x1, was that after I rescued Bocor I stealthed away as fast as I could to drop him and take on Utath by myself. Then I went back to escort him to the exit. Sometimes the NPCs are a lot safer if they aren't with me.

Good to see how this was supposed to end. I was running the arc at x4 on a blaster with no heals or group buffs. That made the surprise need to keep Bocor alive...problematic. We got as far as Utath and her minions. I took care of Utath. She took care of Bocor. I expected an escort mission; for some reason I didn't expect Bocor to be an ally with a death wish!

Come to think of it, this would be a great time for @TerroirNoir2 to take a break from regular programming and try out some of the holiday-themed AE arcs.

Are you going to post Engineria's adventures running around Atlas Park collecting presents, fighting the Winter Lord, and skiing the slopes by the Ski Chalet? ('Cause I'd read that...and probably add it to the list above as "Engineria's Holiday Special!")

Working for Recluse? Pfeh! My villain kicked that eight-legged arachnofetishist's butt (in an alternate timeline)! He doesn't work for Recluse! The two of them have merely reached an "understanding." Seriously, though, I'll have to check these out (and your reviews were great, BTW).

By that (sound) logic, there would be a tactical advantage to a War Walker having what looks like a "face" or a "head" but which contains no vital equipment. It might fool an attacker into thinking the head is a weak spot and thus wasting attacks that might have been targeted at more truly sensitive areas.

Mr. G makes his own fun. And friends.

How does that work with an Arachnos Spider soldier, anyway? Are their hands not armored? Are the gloves (gauntlets?) easily removable? And how would tarantulas authenticate? They don't seem to have hands anymore. And what about Mu Mystics? Aren't their arms and hands bound up? You'd think there's be better authentication method for a faction with a spider fetish! (No criticism of the story arc, @cranebump! Just some musings on how designing systems for Arachnos must be challenging. I bet Aeon could tell some stories...)