Take One

Will give it a look later today if I have time. Since I discovered that it might be in the running for my competition I won't comment on it just yet.

Perhaps I should clarify - I am not against humor, and indeed some of my own arcs may seem silly or maybe even funny. When I say that I like arcs that treat the game world seriously, I mean that I prefer stories that stay within the framework of the game world and doesn't turn places, characters and themes upside down or inside out for the sake of humor. Indeed, the canon game is full of humor and jokes, but still manage to maintain some kind of internal consistency (tangled timelines be damned). So enter any arc you want into the competition, I will accept them all, but I have presented my biases so you will know how I shall judge them. If your arc is still available and you want it to be in the run, I shall play it and try to ignore the appearance of the contact - unless you write it into the story somehow. In fact, I will ignore any obvious bugs in any of the entries, as long as they don't render the arc unplayable.

It looks like you haven't unlocked him yet. Did you train up to 10+ before talking to him, or did you still have untrained levels? Did you talk to Alan Desslock to be properly introduced to him as a contact?

I'm in a bit of a slump when it comes to making my own arcs, but I'm sitting on a ton of influence and merits. So I thought to myself, why not do something useful with all this loot? And what better way to make more quality arcs available and encourage more writers, than by hosting an AE story competition? The competition ends on midnight on July 31. Your arc, whether it's new or already exists, must be published before the cut-off date. The theme for the arc is HEATWAVE. Interpret as you see fit. Post information about your arc in this thread, the most important of which being the Arc ID. I am the sole judge and will decide the winner and any runner ups entirely based on my own tastes. If you want to know what I like, I have created several arcs in the AE which I feel are excellent examples of good AE writing, some of which I have listed in my signature below. If you don't want to do your homework and play my stuff, I'll say here that I like content that fits in the game world, is canon-related and takes the world of CoH as seriously as the game itself does. I will play the entries as they come in, so if you change anything before the cut-off date, let me know so I can re-play the arc. I will probably re-play them all after July 31 anyway, but please make sure I don't miss anything important. Now, what are the awesome prizes you can win? Well, writing a good arc can be time-consuming so I figure it's worth a whole lot. I figure that the winner deserves at least 500 million influence. Two runner-ups get 100 million each. I'm the only one providing these prizes and while my coffers are vast I hope to run this again in the future, so I have to save some for the next installment. So, to recap: Write a story arc in the AE on the theme HEATWAVE. Post the Arc ID in this thread, along with any other relevant information. One winner gets 500 million influence. Two runner-ups get 100 million influence each. You have until July 31. Good luck!

Everlasting Zone/Mission: Tech_60_Layout_05_01 Position: [-3300.3 0.8 -476.1] In this spot on this map there's an invisible wall that blocks a corridor in the laboratory.

You don't have to hover over to the combine part with your mouse. You can just press "C" on your keyboard, and then the number.

If you're desperate for content to play, I have a bunch of arcs you haven't reviewed. Just look in my signature here, or search for @Take One in the AE.

But... it already is an auto-attack with no endurance cost. Ctrl + click and it will attack automatically. And it goes with every powerset already since everyone can punch. Can you describe better what you are looking for?

Endolphin... that's a character name, I can feel it.

Agreed, we shouldn't be moving or removing anything if it risks breaking existing arcs, but I'm sure Faultline is already thinking of that. Duplicating bosses/unique mobs into the factions they belong to where they are missing should be the right way. And then there's the question of what to do about those bosses who don't belong to a faction but are available as Generic Hero or Villains or similar. Should they be placed in an existing faction such as Longbow/Arachnos, or should there be a new placeholder faction only to hold these critters so they can be included in custom factions?

But long before they get around to this, can they add a couple of zeroes to the stack limit of converters in the AH?

Just found out that there are high level Warriors in Pandora's Box. Release the Warriors! Oh and Sky Raiders too I guess.

They spelled her name wrong... gah! Miss Thysle???

I don't think we can get too specific here. Most of the groups are correct after all. We're looking for the really obscure stuff now.

I wanted to make it close to the original while cutting some of the chaff. If I was to make an entirely new Synapse TF it would have been about Crey instead. The intent was to see if it was possible to fit the gist of the story in 5 missions, which I believe it was. The devs can do with this knowledge as they wish. I have no doubt that they can "fix" the TF if they really want, however they want to do it. As far as I know they haven't played my arc anyway, but now, if the question comes up, I can point to it.

Some of The Awakened are missing: Immanence Astral Mindstorm Mindcrasher Channeler Astral Conduit

Angry Citizens are missing, but they seem to be an "event" group so they probably can't be added since they don't have ordinary levels. But I'll let the poor devs sort that out. https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Angry_Citizens

I don't see why not. Report them all, let the devs sort them out.

The 2nd Imperial Defense Force Regiment is missing entirely. https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/2nd_Imperial_Defense_Force_Regiment

When I was playing through the SFMA tag, I would expand the search options and check the "my level" circle, to get things close to my own level. It worked, most of the time.

So the other day Faultline mentioned on Discord that they devs don't have a list of missing enemy groups or enemy critters that potentially could be added to the AE. After picking up my jaw, and now recovering for a couple of days, I decided to finally do something. So here's a thread where people can report enemy groups or critters that seem to be missing from the AE, so that Faultline can see if they can add them in. I will try to consolidate the reports in this post, so people don't have to read through it all to find out what has already been reported. Groups Angry Citizens (https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Angry_Citizens) Axis American The Reichsmann Banished Pantheon Mummified Husk (Underlings). Much like all underling rank enemies who are missing from the AE. The lack of these makes the BP very different and necessitates the creation of custom zombie mobs to make up for it, but custom zombies don't move like zombies and don't look right. The Awakened (https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/The_Awakened) are missing some critters: Immanence Astral Mindstorm Mindcrasher Channeler Astral Conduit Black Knight (or The Black Knights?) (https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/The_Black_Knights) Black Queen Lord Lorn Nega-Pendragon Pendragon Cap au Diable Demons (https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Cap_au_Diable_Demons) Carnival of Shadows is just called Carnie in the AE. The other carnivals have their proper names. Carnival of Light (https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Carnival_of_Light) Vanessa de Vore (Elite Boss) Cimeroran (https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Cimerorans) Immunes Surgeon Sybils Various NPCs Cimeroran Traitors (https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Cimeroran_Traitors) Immunes Surgeon Nictus Essence (1) Nictus Essence (2) Nictus Essence (3) Crey (https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Crey) Crey Public Relations Special Agent Sharpshooter Decaying Eidolons Demons of Diabolique (https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Demons_of_Diabolique) Destroyer Patient Zero - might just be a normal Hombre, so who knows. Crusher (Weakened) Devouring Earth The Seed of Hamidon (Giant Monster)? Flying seedlings that go along with the Seed of Hamidon? The Avatar of Hamidon (EB/AV version) Escaped Prisoner (https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Escaped_Prisoner) Freaklok (I know Faultline didn't want to include these yet, but I put them here anyway for completion) Ghost (40-54) - possibly expand this to whatever level range Croatoan spirits have? I think they are the same mobs. Hydra Tentacle (minion, lieutenant, boss) Hydra (AV) Imperial Defense Force (21-54) Battle Orb Mk I Battle Orb Mk II Battle Orb Mk III Fusion (AV) Jane Temblor (AV) Praetorian Col. Duray (AV) Imperial Defense Force (50-54) Not sure if the Battle Orbs should also exist in this group. "Incarnate Automatons", as they appear in the Pandoras Box arc. Macht Jaeger Incarnate Warhulk Malta Operative (41-54) and/or (50-54) Slinger (AV) Director 11 (AV) Midnight Masters Montague Castanella Midnight Squad Dream Doctor Mercedes Sheldon Darrin Wade (EB/AV) Darrin Wade (Incarnate) Montague Castanella (EB/AV) Exorcist (AV) Praetorian Police Chief Interrogator Washington Interrogator Kang Officer Welks Prisoners (https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Prisoners) The Cabal Sprite Nictus Lesser Unbound Nictus Unbound Nictus Greater Unbound Nictus Shadow Cyst Crystal (AV/object) Pandora's Might (https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Pandora's_Might) Olympian Herculean Avatar of Zeus Seer (1-54) and Seer (50-54) Subjugator Skulls (https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Skulls) Gravedigger Assailant Gravedigger Striker Death Head Soldier Death Doll Death Walker Chernobog (AV) Morana (AV) Veles (AV) Sky Raider Expanded level range using the mobs from Market Crash/Pandora's Box, to get Sky Raiders from 40-54 would be very nice. For me. Raider Engineer Force Field Generator Colonel Duray (AV) Captain Stone (AV) Crimson Prototype (AV) Soldiers of Rularuu Faathim the Kind Chularn the Slave Lord Ruladak the Strong Lanaru the Mad Turrets. Like the ones you find in Striga missions against the council, or in that one Tip Mission where they pop out of the floor. Fires. Like the ones in the arson event in Steel Canyon, and in other places (Mercy island?). It would be cool to be able to set a map on fire, and let players "defeat" the fires to put it out. Proximity Bombs. Not sure if they would work best as enemies and placed in boss spawns, or as objects you can place on the floor. UPA (https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/UPA) Warriors - expand the level range with the mobs from Pandora's Box Individuals It has become apparent that some critters are not located within their respective groups, but only available as placable "boss" critters. This makes it impossible to add them to custom groups, which is a bit annoying. Ankylosaur suggested adding them to their groups for this purpose. Some of them don't belong to a group currently, and those could perhaps be added to a new placeholder group or to an alignment-based group like Arachnos, Longbow or the IDF, depending on what side they are on. So I guess I'll add another list here for those special individuals: The New Praetorians Alec Parsons Aurora Pena Gerald T. Marchand Grant Creston Noble Savage Marauder Pendragon Riptide Various Leonard Mr. G Psimon Omega Emperor Cole himself is missing, in both forms, the costumed version and the one with the white uniform Transmuter Aria Cleopatra Reese Stern Warrant Zane Riptide (lower level variant) Subjugator 5 Calvin Scott (Praetorian) Desdemona Maelstrom Actually, I don't know if this is a good idea. It looks like I'm just going to have to type out the whole list of "placable bosses" from the AE and beg that they are duplicated in their respective enemy factions. Not sure if that's what Faultline is looking for. Any input on this?

They can't even keep track of what you have done _within Praetoria_ so I don't think some timey-wimey wibbly-wobbly mixups are a problem. It would be a nice thing to have but there are so many places that this could or should be used, that it would be almost impossible. Besides, Veridian has already spread out news of your exploits, including a fake history of you being a Prime Earth native when you arrive to the Rogue Isles, so it's not so strange that they all think you have been there before.

I've been playing through the 1-20 Praetorian content 2 and a half times this past week or two, and each time I start a new character I keep thinking about how pointless it all is since I know how the story will end: with all my choices being made irrelevant, the dimension being lost to the Hamidon, etc. A new start, beginning as a refugee in Paragon/Rogue Isles sounds like a great idea. But then again, nothing is preventing us from doing this now. Making it "official" could be fun but then it would also lock that particular origin in, sealing it into the specific events taking place. There's nothing right now to prevent us from making a hero or villain and claim our origin is a refugee from Praetoria. Well, one thing might: level progression = time progression. At level 1, there are no refugees from Praetoria. At level 20 there are no refugees from Praetoria. Around level 30 we see them for the first time. The timeline is already mightily confused, I'm not sure this would help.

No idea what happened there. Maybe you have to play at a higher notoriety setting, like x4 players or something, I don't know. Thanks for playing and thanks for your reviews! I'm glad and a bit surprised that you liked the Clockwork Romance the most. I don't suppose you tried out both endings? Which one did you pick? Did you save Penny or did you leave her for the Clockwork? Oh and the Synapse TF retelling was mostly to see if and how the entire TF could be condensed down into a more reasonable number of missions, if it was to ever be remade.

From what I've heard, all SS attacks do less damage than they should because of Rage, so my idea was to add that damage back in, plus a little more to compensate for the damage that is no longer provided by Rage. I could also see other changes like damage being added to Handclap and/or turning one of the other punches into a cone.