cranebump

I have a more or less full day of nuttin' comin' up this Saturday, so I will try to get a few more reviews in. Especially seeing as how we have so many more active authors showing off their wares. I'll be a bit rusty. But then rushing in with your blaster and dying is, I hear, like falling off a horse, so...I feel confident it'll all come back to me.:-)

Just thinking that @TerroirNoir2's assertion, I know what I mean, encapsulates my entire life mantra.:-) (I love reading these writeups. TN is always dropping in these humorous pearls, one after another.)

Echoing @Police Woman and @Frozen Burn. Beginning. Middle End. That pretty much says what I subscribe to (and turned into convoluted lecture series, above).:-)

I consider mishes in SFMAs to be parts of a greater story, analogous to, say, movie script structure. So you have intro to/of a problem (intro mish) investigation/complication/some sort of twist (middle mishes), finale (tying up the arc (setting up segue into next arc, if the story is multi-arc). With multiple arcs telling a larger story, the structure is the same, but spread out over more missions (middle arcs working like middle mishes, structurally, for example). I haven’t done a collection of, say, radio mishes, but each mish could follow the same structure, in microcosm. Such a structure is maintained, even if you put things in different order (like starting at the end in M1, then telling the rest in flashback). Pulp Fiction is an example of telling a structured story, then chopping it up and presenting it in non-linear fashion (which made the movie gimmicky to me—you tell it in order, it’s pretty simple). However the plot’s presented, it just needs to be easy to connect, and, to me, follow Todorov’s model of status quo-disruption (rinse, repeat, till status quo has been reestablished or a new status quo has emerged). However anyone does it, you just need a solid basic plot, and characters to care about. All other considerations are secondary.

Multiple singularities. (Actually happened when a team ran a mish of mine that was fine solo, but spawned additional bosses with the power. BOY-YOINGYOIING)

Captain Castillo. He told me so himself. (MANY times):-)

D'oh...the request says "play as intended." That makes it hard. Most people intend to not die (my playstyle to the contrary).:-) Hmmm...I probably agree with the Emp DEF as being poor/slow to solo. Of course, if you really want to go "as intended," then it's such things as not seeding the character with any Inf, using drops, etc. The default style, in and of itself, makes things inherently tougher. Then you stack the more challenging AT/Powersets on top of that, you got yourself some nice, slow pain. Speaking of powersets: Beast/Rad is really that bad? Man, I thought Rad anything was pretty good, thanks to debuffs.

Would any petless MM fit the bill here?

Welcome back! And as far as finishing stuff, not to worry from my part—I have nothing in production. (Though I evidently have the usual errors).:-)

Whatever you do, the character must be a Bad, Bad Boy.

I want a Troller who’s a Charismamancer. I just fly by and the mobs swoon and fall over. The XP (and your hearts) are MINE!

Any 7 people, and me to be Venge bait.

But how will you emulate “pop the muscle band!” (Oh, yeah—crane knows Big Jim):-)

There’s a tipping point where one person’s “thoughtful” post becomes someone else’s homework. I’m not sure where that is but, as a secondary teacher of nearly 30 years, I can tell you the distance to that point gets shorter and shorter every year.:-) (Also: one person’s in-depth, detailed discussion is another person’s “nails on a chalkboard” [i’m looking at you, student who talked only about K-Pop boy bands…every day…constantly…and wanted to do research projects on them…and hummed their songs…and-SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!]).

I’m a low to the ground hero guy, as well. That’s why I gravitate to the Row in so many stories, I guess. Has that Hells Kitchen feel.

My KR-based staff vigilante is a Spec Ops vet who did some bad shit for the government (before stealing their high tech gear when he mustered out). I’d say Anthony Mackey for Acrobattle (he’s closest in looks, I’d say). For KR Devil, my punisher type guns/arrow slinger, I had to do some searching. Carlos Pratts looks like a good choice.

Indeed. How your wind went beyond the second is somewhat miraculous.:-)

Finished the run today. Some observations: Big Shivan ambush is a toughie. Handled it fine with some insps. The bloodsucker I "rescued" hits HARD. Ambush on top of it and I died. Probably would've handled it fine had I chose to retreat and drag the group to me in nearby hall. Then I could've rezzed in mish if I died. Finale mish ran much smoother than I remember last time. Ended up with 3 allies as we did the Troll rescue chain floor-by-floor. Daniels had a nice moment at the end (finale text). OVERALL: Clean. Mechanically sound. Lot of nice details involving NPCs, esp. use of animations to show what they're doing. Nice use of dialogue there, too. Ambushes would be VERY tough for a non-exemplared character (though I think if you follow mainline quest, you miss some of them). Finished it without a hitch (save for that bloodsucker betrayer!).:-) Nicely put together. I'd like mish titles (or numbers) just to track my progress, but it's not a dealbreaker by any means. Only obvious thing I saw that you probably want to fix is missing searchbar text for "locks" in the New Skulls mish. It's just an empty red bar. Minor item, though. Overall, well done! Really liked that first mish.

I managed to run the first 2 mishes before having to go for an appointment. GREAT first mish. Ally spawns helped out a lot. Last ambush was a big one, but occurs after mish completion, so anyone who wants to bail can. Mish 2 also mechanically well done. I was grumbling about having to Find Exit, but located Blue Spectrum on the way out, so it made sense. Nicely done so far, kemosabe! I'll knock it out when I get back on.

Part 2 is “A Vendetta for V.” Part 3 is “Veillance.” I put in some text to Arc 1s description to direct to mish 2. Probably need an overall story name, so I can label it as such. Maybe story is Stalking the Detectives, with Arc 1 having its own title (something that begins with V, obViously):-)

Yeah, I read some announcement like this and I think: Attention! Attention! I am about to take a shit. A big, beautiful yuuuuge shit...EVERYONE COME LOOK AT MY SHIT!🙂

Chaotic Good:-)

You filthy bastard! How could you?!* *All good, man. We're all appreciative of the effort. Now get out there and eat those...foods...yes, FOODS. Normal foods. Not...baby food.:-)

Or my prospective new toon, Shiggles.:-)

I always assume that people are running characters who are exemplared down, and probably IO’ed (with attunes). That said, I do try to test my arcs with characters to fit the level. I can certainly see, and have seen, that customs are definitely tougher than your average bear. I am certain I have some pain the ass ones in earlier arcs, but have hopefully more balanced ones on newer arcs. (Again…hopefully…):-)