cranebump

If you’re just coming back, and Emp was your original jam, I’d just play that. It’ll let you ease back in in a comfortable manner.

I think we can assume it’s the Atlas in the game.:-) I always figured he was a SS/Inv tanker. With the aforementioned map and nav skills.:-)

There's an "Unconscious" selection, though I can't recall if it is available under all NPC objectives (allies, rescues, etc.). That said, I don't think you can have them as an objective where the body stays put (I imagine the NPC will get up, then fall back down when you leave them). You can use "Dead Slab" to have an NPC fall over to the ground on a rescue, but they won't stay there, to the best of my knowledge. On the whole, I think you're okay with the body bag (though it's not visually optimal), since players will note the bad news from the visual clue.

Okay, here we go: Long story short for the no spoilers crew: this has Crane's unmitigated seal of approval (if that means anything...I mean, it's not a Honus Wagner baseball card, but I WILL provide gum). Well done, @Seed22!

Not sure when I’ll get to it, but do have an idea. Just need to mull it a bit more.

Oh, man...now I'm glad I got through it when I did.:-) Just to be clear about my intent on that comment: I was not running on max settings. I thought I was more at fault than anything on the design front. But those maps feel sparse anyway, don't they? Should make for a hell of a run now.

I cannot believe you dragged yourself out of your sick bed and into the breach this week, hombre. Tip of the 10-gallon hat!

I hardly do any tutorial arcs anymore. Used to do Galaxy City. So these days: I might do DFB to about level 10. Then KR or Hollows. Lockhart in Steel (or Pos1 and 2). Faultline arcs. Usually throw in a Synapse and a Cit. If I'm straight soloing, I may or may not start with Matt H. I might start out with default contacts in Atlas. Whether I do or not, I'll follow whatever contacts I get, often juggling 2 at a time (used to do more than that, but 2 is easier to manage these days, and gives me a better chance of not outleveling one of the arcs before I complete it and get the merits). There's a lot of merits via arc completion, by the way. It can't compete with the time/merit ratio of blowing through some of the TFs, but you can come out with a decent haul.

So do I. Though I have started the process with as little as a basic title, and then done some creature design before figuring out the story. In the case of this thread, I'm mainly thinking about some of the stuff like @Clave Dark 5 has done (particularly the one involving sound {the title, unfortunately, escapes me). I'd include @Peacock's Rumors of my Death are Entirely Accurate in there, as well, if only for the introductory mish that sets the stage for everything else. Mainly though, I wanted to pay some respect to @huang3721's comment about level design, which isn't something I've thought about much, but is worth more examination and appreciation.

This thread is based on this comment from another discussion we've been having here in the hallowed halls of AE: Now...while there is no way in the nine hells that, as a story teller, I'm going to agree that level design transcends storytelling, I WILL readily admit that creative level design can be its own piece of art, for sure. There's some stuff out there that can be appreciated for its design intricacy, creativity, and, - dare we say it? (yes...we dare) - pure aesthetics (which, indeed, may transcend being pigeonholed into the typical "story" category). That being the case, if you are an accomplished and artistic mechanical designer, or one for whom the presentational aspect is at the forefront; if you're one who experiments with the tools we have to produce unique creations, or for whom "story" might be better termed as "experience,"* this is your exhibition hall. Post your creative mechanical design entries here. Your experimental pieces. The times you were pushing the AE tools to their limits. Your strange edge cases that fit into the stereotypical AE "story" box." You might tell us a bit about what you were shooting for. Or we can just let the art, flow over us, man. Either way, throw yourself some bouquets. Let everyone know you've got something uniquely off the beaten path. * This isn't to say you aren't trying to tell a story, of course. But the idea is that your primarily using the tools to produce some interesting effects or challenges.

Thanks, cuz.:-)

If you’re comfortable with game play, you might try villain play instead. Stories are generally better, since it came out later. If you want more narrative choices, that’s Goldside (Praetoria). That said, if you follow contacts Habashy, Stockwell in Kings Row, The Hollows arcs starting Wincott, then Faultline starting with Jim Temblor, you’ll see some good stories. Laura Lockhart inn Steel Canyon is a great arc. The new content is also very good (or at least interesting?). That said, this may not be your jam. Nothing wrong with that. (interesting…your comments on what you don’t like here echo mine about Neverwinter (gather X widgets, defeat X number of this type enemy, go inside a structure and kill a boss). Maybe stuff is better behind the paywall on that one.)

Running a Rogue MM, I zoned in to Nerva, had a LONG flight across the zone to contact Naylor. When I turned toward the nav point, I saw a long line of Rikti ships, flying one behind the other, slightly offset, gliding over the water, dropping their bombs. It was freakin’ majestic. Woulda taken a screenshot, but I seem to be out of space to paste it. (After gawking for a bit, I got the f*** out of there and joined a Synapse team. Didn’t think those guys wanted me in their convoy. Especially since they took pot shots at my poor, stupid zombies.)

It’s not how I’d want to play, either (I’m much more with the “it’s the journey” team [though I try not to be completely useless]).:-) As you said, though, who am I to argue? And it really does seem like getting to that level of near-to-full-invincibility is not hard to do these days. If that’s what the player wants. I mean, I’m nowhere close to being a build expert, but I have 1 pretty tough tank. Pretty sure, though, that it’s chicken scratch next to what a real pro can do.

Bumping just cuz.

If I ever take a long break, I’ll let you know:-)

I guess it's a hard question to answer, then, since the OP mentions "feeling heroic," which is subjective, at best. The examples given, above, indicate that "heroic"="invincible." You can certainly create a character like that, if you want to. You can also create a character who's "heroism" is pushing through the odds, suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune (and by opposing, end them [albeit bloodied, at times]). In short, you can most certainly conjure an efficient, invincible killing machine (though you're not going to be dumpster-herding entire maps anymore). If that's the type of character you want. In fact, considering the speed at which teams run through TFs these days, I'd say your specifications are likely already fulfilled. I DO agree that the only way to know is to just play the game to find out. There's a ton of guides and such out there to take you where you want to be.

If you want to be invincible, there's ways to do it. I solo a lot, and don't see solo play as being killed off on default settings. If anything, you're likely to have to pump up the diff to get the level of challenge you want. I'm a pretty casual player, but I've been defaulting to +0/x2 for every toon, and cruising along through most of it (those low level Vahz can be a bit of a pain, if you're not careful).:-)

I can understand and accept your counterpoints to story vs. level design (though, if you get the former right, in addition to the latter, I feel the end product is superior). There are some arcs out there that are design experiments. That's not how I approach it, though, so any advice I give is going to focus on what I think I know, versus what I can't speak to. Anyhoo, that stuff all makes sense to me. On the one above, though? I'm going to have to hold to my original criticism. The boss fight occurs at the tail end of the entire arc. We're talking THE big boss. Yet, to fully defeat them, the designer wants me to chase them through the hallways. While they're speeded buffed. Through Oranbega's twists and turns. And I'd have to detach myself from her mob that's attacking me to go into a tactically disadvantageous position (as they're likely to follow and hit me from behind [which would be a BIG concern if I were running, say, my blaster). THAT's the issue. It isn't like I failed, per se. The boss didn't hurt me at all. And if they'd stayed on the map somewhere, or not turned Barry Allen on me, I'd have tracked them down and finished the job. But they didn't. They just ran like hell to the nearest exit. POOF! I assume the designer wanted to give me some sort of challenge. But it doesn't work that way, as designed, because they're gone before I can catch them. I'm not even sure using an AT with holds would help all that much, since they're a boss, and likely to be immune anyway (or let's say I hold them, but then I can't damage them enough with a control AT to bring them down so...same effect [and anyway, I shouldn't have to switch ATs just to complete the arc). In the end, it felt like the designer just didn't want me to "win," so I didn't. Technically, I succeeded, because I accomplished the mish objectives. But putting a big boss in the mish in the first place signals to me that you want me to battle. So sending them off the map in the finale (the finale) is just, well, it's both a poor story and design choice (bear in mind I'm talking specifically about the Vampire story, not the ninja one -- haven't run that one). And just to be clear about how I run these things: I usually run on default settings. I also don't get all butthurt if I just fail. If I have failed, and it the situation merits it, I'll stock up on big insps before I go back in, just to finish off a tough fight. If I thought I needed help, or needed to reduce settings, I would do so. For this one, though, I was running an exemplared Incarnate Tank at +0/x2. I was never in danger. I wasn't going to fail the boss fight. That said, there was just no way I could navigate the hallways as fast as the boss did when she ran off with her speed buff. I'm just not that good at flying fullspeed through maps (esp. tunnel-type ones). Failure? It's no biggy to me. I'm not so puffed up on superiority that it's an affront to lose. A real challenge is good sometimes (as in the last Pos1 team I was on, when we got wiped by our dupes, our leader bailed out, and the rest of us remained to chip away at it till we were victorious). That said, there's a difference between me just failing and the Kobayashi Maru. I'm generally not running AE mishes to build character (nor are many other players, I believe). While I respect your suggestions, I still think this arc would be better served if the ultimate big bad guy didn't wuss out and run off. Let the wookie man, man.:-)

Alright, who unlocked the high chair again?

I have a Fire/Atomic blaster based on a similar theme that I have enjoyed (when I've played him). Some good secondary powers in there, and you can drop FI-YAHHHHHHH! on everything.

I’ll put it on my agenda:-)

If it’s a typical AE mish, all of the targets’ text pops at once, unless they’re located in different floors (and even then, it no guarantee they won’t). This means that even the text isn’t always helpful, unfortunately. I wouldn’t know how it came out in this one, though.

Sometimes?:-)

Seed gives REALLY valuable advice, when it comes to writing and refining stories. Everything you do is practice that can affect other things you may do. For example, working within the confined space of AE text boxes and 5-chapter arcs is excellent training for plot development. You learn to whittle out the chaff and focus on the throughline. That sort of hyperfocus is essential to building tight plots in other styles/genres. “The Poetics” pushes “plot first” for a good reason. If the story makes no sense, nothing else I do can save it.