cranebump

Yes, he is/does:-)

Don't you know by now that we of the intrawebs cannot do anything reasonably?🙂 My wish list is DP/Arrows and MA/SJ. I can simulate it a bit with Fighting/Sands (maybe even adding flurry from SS), but (sigh) full on slap/tickle (with sharp, ranged, pointy things), isn't yet a thing. That aside, I think I agree with the comment that a melee controller is basically a tank.

Does that one require getting Bocor out, or just to the urn room?

I honestly don't know, sorry.:-/

Sounds like a job for the KR Devil! (That’s as close to moderately evil that I have):-)

In between working on AE stuff, I decided to roll up this character, because...well, you'll see. Experiments in Devil-Batting So, i was creating characters for an AE arc. Basically a group of super heroes and vills from alternative timelines/Earths. Had this weird amalgam of Batman, Daredevil, and Moon Knight, who was nemesis of “Lex Fisk.” Decided I liked his costume, so I chose to run him, using the following parameters: Base Powersets: Street Justice/Ninjutsu (though I plan to flesh him out with pool powers; throwing stars woulda been nice, but Devil Bat is no stinkin’ blaster! [yet?]) Normal contacts (Tech and Natural focus). Theme powers (with a dependence/focus on Pool powers that fit) Store-bought enhancements. No IOs. Can trade merits for cash to buy enhances/gadgets/devices (Taser, Grenades and so forth). Use “normal” transportation (though I did get himn Athletic run, jump pack, and will buy flight packs, as well, because he’s a gadget guy; and he has a “small base” [see below]). Let’s start with pics, and bio: Beware, evil-doers. I am the dusk! BIO: Bruce Murdoch, blind since birth. Orphaned when his parents were slain in a senseless robbery. Taken in by the enigmatic, homeless tech genius, Tony Stick, he learned to turn his other senses into a lethal weapon. Now, after many years of training, and beget Stick’s small lab when the old man passed, he emerges as Paragon’s newest hero (or maybe vigilante - he can’t decide). By day, he devotes himself to paralegal duties for the struggling law firm, Pennyworth and Wayne. By night, he is the avenging angel of the moon, from which he is certain he draws (at least some of) his power. (There. That's muddled, yet obvious enough, isn't it?) Since he has a “small lab,” I decided to give him a...small lab, with one portal to 3-4 zones. He’ll likely not need much storage. Will put in an empowerment station and likely a mediporter. Toying with the idea that, when he faceplants, he has to return to base (thanks to that special device he has secreted…somewhere in his colon, I assume). So, with that in mind, here’s Bruce’s journey: Devil Bat, Year...er, Day 1: A Bat Emerges (covered in the guano of heroism!) Bruce is born! Er, or rather emerges in Atlas Park, where he hits up Rick Davies and takes on some clocks. After 2 missions I realize he has no base (even though I SAID he had a base [a small one...a lab, actually]). So, he’s got to have a base (a small one; rinky-dinkish). I am therefore off to register myself as a Super Group! (I’ll develop the alternate personalities to flesh the roster later). Why quibble with titles? There’s only me. I am Omni-f'in BAT! (devil) I start work on the base. Gonna be a quick one. I can’t spend too much time on this, anyway. I have to script AE mishes in my alternate guise as a normal human being close to retirement age (which is, really, trying not to do much that’s actually fruitful or productive). BASE CONSTRUCTION COMPLETE! Well, that was quick. Empowerment station. Single TP to Atlas, Talos, IP and PI (like Ouro). Mission computer (‘cuz BAT!). Power generator. Mediporter with first aid kit and monitoring equipment. One salvage rack. The DC CAVE IS COMPLETE! BEWARE EVIL DOERS! (after a quick break to go fold clothes I forgot were in the dryer).:-) I AM THE WASH! (to be continued)

Inititial Scripting for Mobius 5 is done. Will be working on mishes tomorrow. Hoping to complete it in a couple weeks, depending on how much time I get to work on it. Before Christmas, though! That's the goal.

Please direct any criticisms of any arc to @cranebump. He deserves it for those GD timers!:-)

Vigilante mostly. That way when a call for something redside goes out, I can respond. I don't play straight villain much at all, and had only a couple of rogues.

Staff is pretty good, except maybe for the “I stab your feet multiple times!” animation. The thing I like about it is if your big AoE attack misses you still look cool because you’re break dancing.

I think I originally wanted a "what if Willie survived?" character, and so brought her on board (but then brought back Willie anyway). Ended up tying her backstory in with KR's Ron Hughes, just to keep her grounded in The Row. She was sort of a throw in, but somehow ended up reappearing. It's like she was a guest star in a series that they just kept bringing back until, there they were (sort of like my favorite DS9 charcter, Garak, though, you're right, Briggs-Hughes isn't a major player...well, yet).:-) Skullia, whom @Darmian mentioned, had nearly a full character arc behind the scenes in the original Mobius. She was one of the "vendors" in Buzzsaw's "business." Got arrested, then recruited to help out in Dempsey's Hard 8, and ended up being redeemed as a hero (as mentioned in a blurb in the denouement of the original series). If I ever go back to Ordinary People, I might consider dropping her in there and maybe somehow incorporating her, but I feel like that story's gone forever with the rewrite. I still have the character on the roster, though! And after this is done, I figure I'm due for another Row story of some kind (if I can think of any).

So let’s say Boss A is the one that runs away. Boss B tells me where to find them. Is my goal going into the mish to pursue Boss A? Or am I after something else when I discover I need to find Boss A, and Boss B has the info I need? I ask this because the fight you’re describing seems a cosmetic decision. If so, then the objective can be achieved using other means. It may seem limiting, but the lack of being able to do anything and everything forces the storyteller to focus on what’s essential, and how to get that across in the clearest, simplest way.

Lobart is supposed to stay put. He will then deliver text about putting programming into place that uses nanites to make bots from local resources. He NEVER followed in tests. Not once. I set him as a non-combatant. When you receive his “transmission” about him having issues with some of the bots he shouldn’t be standing right next to you! AAAAAAGH! GD AE! Why? Whywhywhywhy?

You can’t. AE does not have those options. Boss dialogue can be placed in a clue that pops on the clues screen when they’re defeated, so you can simulate that. A boss can try to run from you, but if it’s a mish objective and they get away, the mish fails. No targets can TP away at all. With that in mind, why was it necessary/desirable to have them fighting each other? What will the player learn when talking to boss #2?

Fixes: Text added for Aaron Ruegad, Galen and Dis. Text for Dis contains a bit of a hint at finale. Changed "clear the top floor" to "Set off bombs. Make sure no one's around to shut them off (clear top floor)." FYI: The bombs are listed as "Remote Detonation Explosives." The idea is you put them in place, secure Dis, then blow the place up after you have her. I changed the single objective collection text to match the multiple collection text so it both now say "Remote detonation" as (hopefully) a reminder. Deleted the extra "the" in the Gressman text. Changed "See your clues before going on" to "see your clues screen after accepting mission. BACKGROUND NOTE: Dempsey's Hard 8 was originally an arc where the Wards went to the Rogue Isles without coordination from Arachnos. They used villains they had captured in the a raid similar to the second Buzzsaw raid (namely Chigger, Plutoniman, and a couple others who became part of the narrative [i.e., Skullia, whom @Darmian may remember]). My favorite NPC of this group was one of the snakes, Adder Mortis, who did this really creepy "limmmboooooo" thing when emerging from elevators (while talking about "feasting" all the time).:-)

Thanks for the run! Some comments/explanations: The “black is your color” comment is because you and your team are “holo’ed up” in Arachnos garb. It’s mentioned in the entry pop. It might need to be somewhere else, too (maybe enemy text). Level range is chosen based on where a character would start in Ordinary People. That one was driven by Skulls and Helliona mixed with customs. Subsequent arcs are just guesstimations by me about where the same character would be over the course of time. Some of the arcs are level-locked due to actual in game foes though (Crey, for example). Other than that, it’s just a preference (though ultimately the character level will have narrative significance in the finale [well, maybe]). Galen, Aaron text: yeah, I must’ve dropped the ball on that. Shoot. Alright is technically incorrect, but informally correct. In any case, it saves me 2 characters against text limit, so it ain’t goin’ nowhere.:-) I can’t believe those bombs spawned lower! They were in the last room every single test run. They should not be able to spawn anywhere else. Wonder what happened? Hmm. Clear the top floor is the Defeat All last room text. I made it that way to ensure the player saw the shadow supers, and also caught Dis’s long speech. I’ll have to check why it’s so wonky. Might just need to lower bomb count to 2. Rezzing LTs: can’t recall which one of them has that. For the mobs, I basically brought over base minions of Fawkes Brigade, Saccos, and Chalikar. I then gave them a standard costume, and changed save file. I checked to make sure each have 100% XP at arc lvl cap. I’m wondering which one has the power now, since they look the same (except for Sacco-Vanzettis, who don’t all have helms). Rank structure is actually misleading. “Sergeants” are equivalent to LTs. LTs are Bosses. Captains are elite bosses. Maybe that’s sneaky? Anyway I didn’t have any rezzers in tests (that I recall) but at x8, the chances must be very high to get one. ”See your clues”: I need to fix those, for sure. Dropping in the Mobius info was a bit tough to do in a way that integrated well. Shadow Supers text: oh, I suspect you’ll see them again.:-) I’m due for some vacation time, so hopefully I can clean up all of the arcs various issues. On the whole, I thought this one was pretty solid for a first draft. It’s hard staying ahead of you guys! thanks again

Welcome home, hero. Or villain. Or something in between. 🙂

That one seemed consistent. Everytime I finished the chest-click, it seemed to be right there, then it was off to Zoria. Don't want to miss his gloating, do we?:-) One thing I do need to check is population. Since it's essentially an "empty" map I had to populate it by objectives (ex: patrols). I was sort of in a hurry to get it back up and running, so I'll likely need to check #'s. It felt a little empty during tests.

It really is a neat map. Floating base or something. The old map for that one was an open Croatoa map. Wasn't bad, but felt a bit boring for some sort of pocket dimension holding "one thorn to rule them all." I feel like this map feels less grindy because it's unique. I was also lucky enough to have my Key Holders pop in in places that weren't too hard to find. All that said, I'm still wondering whether an Oranbega-type map maps the most sense. It'd still have some of the same issues, but grouping might be easier (and no chance of falling off the map into oblivion on multiple occasions).:-) Speaking of this mish, I used a black speech of Mordor translator to get Azh Gaddur (one ring is Azh Nazg, I think?).

Not quite where no one has gone. I went there during tests (but not as often, nor with as much vigor).:-)

Yeah that Zoria mish is probably going to be shifted into a cave or something. The Midnighter map would be great for a “repository,” but there’s no way to hide its origin and backdrop. So that one still needs work. On a more positive note, Mobius 4 finally answers the questions about The Strip and The Five. Mulling finale right now, so unsure when that gets done.

Notes: I'd call this the penultimate arc in the whole, damned thing. This assumes I'm smart enough to finish it in one more arc.:-) 4-mishes, rather than 5 (just fell out that way). Tried using an End Clue for last reading on The Mobius Strip (player finally gets the skinny on its nature). But mish ends, and it didn't pop, so I moved it to Mish Begin clue, which is weird, but preferred that to Souvenir (though souvenir makes mention of what the player reads in the mish). Callbacks to NPCs of earlier arcs (and one noteworthy boss).:-) Tried to keep objectives reasonable, thus made allies more or less optional, save where I needed them to trigger other things. Careful on the top floor of the finale (which, now that I think about it, I have to label as Finale). derrr

Westbrush reminds them to check the overpasses. I guess I need to tell them to check in with Westbrush specifically, though you can't access a battle. Then again, it's probably a bad idea to assume everyone knos who Westbrush is.

I'm in final test of first draft of Mobius 4, so that should be there for ya, if you get to it. Interested to see what you think of the stripped down version. Feels much easier to follow and less fragmented to me (but then, I know the scenario, so...).:-)

Absolutely. Nothing has changed, textually. Had an open map in a later mish, and wanted to make it less of a runaround, using Anky's escort tip. Plus, there's a cool new map to use there. it will need some fine tuning, I'm sure. I keep forgetting, I only just did these things. Your runs and @Zhym are the first player tests outside me.