cranebump

It was clear that much WAS optional. What wasn’t entirely clear was what wasn’t. It was also never clear how I got there, but, again, hard to evaluate by any traditional measure because it is a non-traditional arc. It stands on its own due to artistic merit.

Yeah M3 did have glowie overload. Again, wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do except find the “coughing person” and…I dunno. I went after the explosives first, then just treated it as a farm after that and cleared until I found him.

Oooookay... First-Never seen anything like it. That could be a good or not so good thing, depending on who's playing it.:-) Mechanically, it's just flat out brilliant. All the customs, choice of animations, the use of musical notes in the text - just really, really, brilliant. Narratively...well, I knew I was in some sort of weird space. But I spent a lot of time unsure of exactly what I was supposed to do, other than stare at the brilliance (and hear it), and then beat it all down. It's like watching that sequence in 2001, with all the colors, and I'm Dave Bowman, just slack-jawed, staring at it. Overall, it will provide a great experience for folks wanting to max out the settings, because I was only on +0/x4, with a fire-farming tank, and when I got cocky and dragged 3 mobs to me in the finale, I got cold-cocked, after eating insps, popping alpha strike, popping heal, and 3 AoE's. I rated it as a 5, because, as a piece that pushes the creative envelope, this is example A. It's just ridiculously innovative and interesting. Like walking through an art gallery (esp. in the opening). Use of sound is something I haven't seen, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's often discordant, which reflects the theme. I do think it's thin, story-wise, but as it's not a traditional story, the usual litmus tests in this area don't really apply. It drips with atmosphere. It's hard not to be completely impressed by all the work done here, in such a unique fashion. It has things I hadn't thought of, and personally could not execute anywhere close to this level. That said...it has no characters to latch on to. At all. So, anyone looking for the feels isn't going to get any here. On the whole, though, I don't think that really matters because, when you take the entire thing as it is, judging on visuals, atmosphere, sound, and text, it's the best execution of an AE theme that I've ever seen. I liken it to an experimental film. Even the nod to what was actually occurring at the end seemed obligatory, as if I'm told, "Okay, here's an explanation for all this, but really, you should stop worrying and just let art wash over you, man." Great work. Really great. 'Grats.

I still need to do this. Will try tomorrow if I get back on.

Final notes and verdict. Let's start with strengths: Mechanically, you know what you're doing. Your objectives are straightforward, and easy to follow. Your Customs are excellent. Easy to get your ass handed to you if you aren't on your toes. Use of ambushes was judicious and caused some nice (nasty) surprises. Critter text is, by and large, excellent. By and large, the maps work with your intent. What mucks that up is having to defeat everything, all the time. In and of themselves, they're good choices (and finale map is excellent, imho). There's an interesting premise here, with various entities involved in the overarching plot. As @Zhym noted, good bones. Now, to the work:

Mish 2 M3 Moving on to Finale:

Mission 1. I'll hide notes to avoid spoilers.

Okay, I'm doing the run through now. I have a lot of notes and comments that I hope are helpful. Remember, this is a work in progress. Any feedback we offer is to help you improve your product. So, let's start with general notes: General notes: Timed Mishes: Really have to be careful about these, since this is not a favorite of player objectives. In general, I’d say (1) There needs to be a good story reason for a defeat all (ex: We can’t let any of them get back to HQ!); (2) the map matters (small, uncomplicated ones are better); and (3) Don’t add a timer to a Defeat All-it’s too easy to lose track of say, one runner. I should add 4: If I fail a defeat all, with a story mission to defeat all, then how does me failing affect the next mission? Since you can’t add a branching storyline for success/failure, it’s probably best just to remove the timer, mainly to take the onus off you on explaining how my failure has harmed the overall mission. Different levels on mishes: @Zhym's right. Better not to have too much level hopping. You can drop me to 22, but it’s better to keep me there, so I can settle into what powers I have available, and how I can use them to approach your enemies. If you ARE going to have a level differentiation, have a reason for it (EX: They’re using power dampeners in there, so be careful, or It was early in your career when you met Hugo…[followed by other mishes with text showing time passage]). Think like an author first, then as a designer: Basic questions to think of=Who are the characters? What do they want? What’s in the way of them getting it? It’s likely the player character in the way, which is fine. Often, it’s the contact. Sometimes, it’s something we’re trying to figure out. But you, as the story teller must know the answers to the central 3 questions, above. Then, bring me into it, and unravel it as I go. As you continue to follow the tenants of storytelling, within this small, creative space, maintain solid plot structure: Stories can flow in different ways, but typically, for this truncated format, you usually need: (1) Inciting incident: What happens to draw me in? Think En Medias Res: You arrive at the bank, sirens blaring. Three PPD are down, wounded, peppered with arrows. A bystander yells “It’s Manticore! He’s gone crazy!” Make me ask questions: What's up with Manti? Was it REALLY Manti? (2) Add complications: So I’ve taken care of X, but what about Y, the next mish that X leads me to? EX: In Mish 1 (i.e., 'X'), I just discovered (clue). So it wasn’t Manticore, but it looked exactly like him. And this is definitely his tech they’re using. How did they get it? And why are they acting like Manti? Let’s go ask him – whoops…he’s gone. Suddenly both Y and, later, Z just got more complicated. I have a mystery. (3) A Twist: have something unexpected happen. Someone’s trying to take over Wyvern (well, maybe), and has taken Manti prisoner! (most likely) What? It’s his illegitimate son? (4) Unravel complications and conclude. Poor, neglected "Manti, Jr." (who was actually a Manti clone, but with a daddy complex [I just stole the Ultron plot/ethos]. Too bad we had to beat his ass [and his mind-altered dad’s maybe?). If it's a story arc, you need the story first. AE is the vehicle for telling it (which means the details may change, depending on map selections, and all sorts of other niggling and annoying AE limitations. Now, on to Mish 1.

I noticed the same thing about the dialogue, though he did read through some important dialogue offered in Gravity. Seeing as how he's running for an audience, though, and often talking about various subjects while he plays, I'm not sure we can consider the runs truly representative of a typical player experience. I also think he misses the green text pop on objective completions that reveal info without pinging a clue box. This has led me to going back to using clues in situations where the completion text should be enough, but will probably be missed because the player is expecting a clue pop. As for as Clues in general go, my most recent stories are somewhat less clue heavy, and numbered sequentially from 1 (rather than by mission/Clue # [ex: "C1-3"], to sort of gauge how info-heavy the arc is. The one I'm working on currently is making use of "Bonus Clues" to flesh out the narrative, while I make a conscious effort to ensure the Clues I provide are (1) actually needed, and (2) actually clues (and not just situation summaries, or rehashes). On Clues, I really think most players just don't want too many of them. But, as AE players aren't most players, you can get away with more than you would in a trad story arc. Even so, I'm trying to execute new stuff with "less is more" in mind (though this is not the easiest thing to do). On the bosses: Same here - I've included more bosses than usual (but rarely more than 3 types, while Lts and Minions are around 5-6 each).

Often times a concept, but no set pattern. I play solo a lot on Torch. I play teams and TF's on Excel. I made one Fire Farming tank, that I actually farmed with for a short (very boring) while. I usually run a test toon when a new set comes out, but haven't bothered at all with any after the running seismic and hating the huge, screen-covering rock. I run almost exclusively blue side, but I have a current MM that I'm soloing as a challenge put on my by my wife ("Hey--why don't you play something that is completely the opposite of your usual play style. On the side you never play, villain. Oh, and go all the way to 50. [kisses!]). I don't play much high level content, and tend to abandon toons around 30-35, so there's little necessity to bother with mids, min-maxing, or purchasing the same, popular enhancements for every toon. I AM a sucker for movement, though, so I'll slot IO sets with MV bonuses, regardless .=of concept, just to trot slightly faster. I stay away from buffers, since I suck at tracking everyone else (I have trouble enough keeping track of just me). So, long story short: fast-moving, clicky, ranged or melee toons. I'm simple.

Hey, @raven9864! Welcome to the pain!:-) Of course, I refer to the sweet, sweet pain of making the limited AE builder work wonders in spite of itself. I’ll give your arc a run Friday morning. little advice: don’t ever let random negative comments stick. Take good advice. View obstacles and flaws as temporary problems seeking (and having) a solution. When wrestling with the AE creator, follow the path of water-that is, don’t fixate on what it can’t do, but work with what it does do. Finally, and most importantly -steal. Steal every good idea you see. This ain’t rocket science. Tell a good story. Enjoy the process. Grow from the mistakes. and, once again, welcome.

What I like about controllers is having them lock everything down while I blast it with impunity. (another thing I like is when you have a ton of trollers running together and slowly, surely destroying everything-Team Anaconda FTW!)

A recent run of Gravity by @Valeyard (Mollymauk76 on twitch) revealed that my Mission 1 bosses are, shall we say, not beloved. Since they were running at +4 (and +1 I think), the team of 3-4 spawned multiple bosses who summoned singularities. Vale's tank got bounced around the map quite a bit. Couple the fact that, as one of my earlier arcs, I put them on a timer (ain't changing it now - it's got that gold star thing). The negative (but constructive) comments I received were about that - too many singularities, due to having one boss type. I'll have to see if they're right about that, but I suspect they might. I did get a kick out of watching the party tank bounce around between singularities, though. Anyhoo, on the whole. I'd say that's a legit critique and suggestion. In my (weak) defense, I can only offer that (1) Gravity is an older mission for me (which a decent story, I'd say), and I may well have skimped on the M1 customs, since I hadn't learned some shortcuts/faster ways to do things, and so may have stopped at 1 a single boss type); and (2) I script for soloists running at default settings. Of the two, the second determines pretty much everything -- how I approach clues, dialogue, NPCs, and story development. I figure a soloist is there for that - story. They're going to pay attention to text, much more so than a team (simply because it's more of a hassle for everyone not leading the team to follow the story). I know that when I'm running one, I keep tabs for Clues and NPC dialogue permanently tucked off to the side where I can see them immediately. That said, I haven't done a good job of testing at higher settings. I have been more adept at filling out custom mobs through bosses, making sure I've got more or a variety. But I think it may behoove me to run on +X settings to check synergy. In any case, I truly appreciate feedback from teams. It's interesting to see how things change with additional toons. So, if there is a question in all this, I guess it would be Do you script for soloists, teams, or both?

Oh yeah? I’ll harm whoever I WANT! (punches own face) So there!…ow…

Pretty sure you can team with them. You can definitely team the flashback TFs.

No kidding. But didn't it seem inevitable?

While I would agree that the extreme right wing seems to present themselves this way a great deal, there's plenty of "thought policing" to go around on the other side, too. Orthodoxy is a few people believing their way is the way, for everybody. It's not relegated to the side that has the highest TV ratings. I just wish they'd stop trying to get me to despise pretty much everybody by playing into fear.* That said, I'm in full agreement that our entertainment shouldn't be polluted by the sound of grinding axes. As already mentioned, however, we can turn channels off, and use the local control methods for incessant offenders. That would seem to be enough for this insular space. *I just want to lock them all in a room until they either figure it out, or eat each other (or...they could come out of the rat drum Silva talked about in Skyfall).

Chiming on Same here. That's generally a good solution.:-)

Our problem, I think (at least here in the U.S.), is that, for way too many people, their political view is so intertwined with their sense of identity that criticizing their views - and, sometimes, the politicians who embody those views - is tantamount to attacking them personally. That sense of identity, supported by targeted (sometimes self-selected) messaging, has expanded to foment rabid ideological fringe groups, each of which is convinced that the fringe on the other side is the harbinger of destruction. Because they're always yelling about everything, and because our media rewards noise over substance, they squeaky-wheel their way into prominence. As someone in the middle of all this, I get really tired of that. You're not the solution. They're not the problem. Your scorched-earth, zero-sum approach is. Because of that, when it comes to solving real problems in this system predicated on compromise, we're just spinning on the mouse wheel.

It’d be easier to list where I do post. General Discussion, Mission Architect, and Torchbearer discussion.

Eye of the Storm. You miss with your weapon, hands, feet, body, face…

I think it'd need to be 4 fathoms deep for me to reach @Darmian status.:-)

Thanks for the run. I'm lf to it too!

I prefer Blasters over every other AT, and really enjoy throwing together a good blapper (or even a bad one, as my faceplanting intimates). Recently ran a DP/Martial Assault, which turned out to be a ton of fun. And anything blasty with arrows is a fav (archery or tac arrow). Now (and as mentioned once before somewhere), if we can get rid of that big ass rock that covers the screen on Seismic Blast, that would be awesome. Keeps me from playing the set, tbh. New Sets: what I really would like is a single weapon pistol set. Either that, or single pistol animations for the DP powers that are essentially using one gun. OR: a "pistol" pool power: Quick Draw, Aimed Shot, Fan the Hammer, and Pistol Whip. Thanks much, hombre.:-) And maybe we add a buttstock attack to the AR set? Like Arachnos soldiers get?

I got nuthin' here. I've never fiddled with GMs, mainly because I write for soloists, and I assume not every soloist is ready to fight a Giant Monster. Haven't even used them as an optional threat. That said, I've never seen a map with more than 1 selectable GM objective. Since you're dealing with large, outdoor maps, I would think this is something @Ankylosaur would know about.