cranebump

Stealth doesn't have to mean speed. In fact, it really shouldn't, as far as mishes go. That said, I think you're right in terms of, were such a thing put into the scripting engine, someone somewhere would come up with a way to turn it into shit (and then defend their actions as "part of the game").

Of course, going back to Vigilante means the populace has some issues with you: Hey! I had VERY compelling reasons for all that. Here...take my pamphlet...Vigilante-ism for dummies.

I'm thinking you're right about puzzles. Not that I'd ever even try to design one. Not in my wheelhouse. But rewards come from bashing, so, unless there's another way to reward not bashing, stealthing's only going to be the province of solo play and zippy TF's. You know, since you CAN drop in an over leveled/powered bad guy (I think), stealthing, then running like hell to get out might be interesting. That jibes with your Do not get seen objective.

Yeah...guerilla filmmaking, right?

Wouldn't it be nice to reward stealth?

Getting a start on dem tips. Never know who's gonna show up. In this case Blast Furnace. Thanks, bronnaise. Well, THU eve isn't the awesomest game time for everbody. I mean I have Fridays off, of course.:-) Anyway, the slow path is a rough path, and often a lonesome path. Which can lead you to go a bit, um...semi-crackers? As in: I'm sorry, drone-bro. For some reason you guys can't join SG's. Ain't my fault. Yeah...I'm interacting with a drone. I blame saddle rash. Evidently I was prescient, because, after all the Vig mishes, my morality mish has me freeing Furnace, and fighting my former "buddy" (with their +1):

Riders! I’ll be scouring the city for evil doers this evening. Probably be on around 1830 EST (USA). Tonight? Tips in the Row. It’s all gray area there ain’t it? That means Vig mishes! Hope you can join. H’YAH!

Short run through hero tips tonight with my good buddy Omega Fury! Er...Acrobattle is the little guy..ahem... A bit of Rikti non-lovin'. While he works, I break dance.:-)

Okay, Mish 2 took for-EV-er, bc I couldn't easily see the cave entrance. So I cleared the outside map, then rambled around. Customs were easy...when I stunned them with grenades and such. Got raked a few times, but no deaths. I liked how I got the next clue (G don't talk, yo). Customs were well made. Interesting costumes. It doesn't feel Nemesis-like, but the tone of the arc is pretty light, so...nice change of pace. M3 Formatting: One carriage return is sufficient. And I've got to face ******* (no spoilers)? Shiiiiiit...okay, we'll see if squishy is up to it. If not, it's a reload and finish another night. What the...? Why is M**** here? WHA? Both things are absolutely true, as in None and If you say so, bro.:-) (nice touch) This tells me you want to run L50-54, so if you can skew up that way with all mishes, I would. Variety of foes is interesting, bc the drop chutes space them out. Good spawns. So, anyway, I have a big brawl with the boss. Used Insps to make it interesting, then got canked. Bit out of my league, so will need a rerun with a 50+ I feel. So, reloading... Thus far: *Uses some classic maps. *Light tone. Could be a refreshing change of pace, or a put off, depending on player tastes. Always a gamble with tone, but you have to dance with whut brung ya, so...go with your natural style. *VERY clean. Didn't find a typo. *Some great jokes. *Was a challenge for my itty bitty blaster. I play pretty safe and, I think, smart (unless I'm running with friends, then I screw up and cause them all sorts of pain).:-) I don't know if this is a first effort or not, but it's very well done if it is. Obviously needs a minor polish. I'm going to drag an incarnate through it the 2nd time to actually finish it. Good bones! Well done. Crane

Shadowy form of Rick Sterling, a L27 blaster with no fancy IOs. Why? If he can handle it, the average toon will. He really believes in that statement, above, btw...:-) And we're off Captain Castillo! Nice choice. I mean, I hate the mf'er, but the last thing you want is "meh..." TEXT NOTE: I'd go with sky blue on your Arc title. Resembles in-game mish text. Not a big deal, though. Your arc. I like Castillo's text. Stays pretty true to his arrogance. I'm not sure he'd say bestest, however, without catching himself (Why, yes, 'bestest' IS the correct superlative...(ahem)). Nitpick, though. No typos! Put your mish title in colored text, preferably one that matches the color of the title. Title looks bolded and large, which is the perfect way to distinguish it. I like the euphemisms: Send them my regards, i.e., kick the living shit out of them.:-) Heh..funny joke on entry (dam puns) Nice touch here: Damn right I will...:-) By the way this was just AFTER she put me on my squishy blaster back. Nice dialogue clues to "G's" actual nature. Enjoyed the HAL ref.:-) Wrapped up pretty easily, thanks to my Taser (stun is so nice). Very clean and straightforward. Quick first mishes are nice. Gets me to dive right in. M2 Okay, so you gave directions in the Nav before I even entered. I'm assuming the map I'm on will tell me why. Tbh, I'd rather get the info once in mish, but let's see how this plays out. Oh...THAT map.. Okay I get it. But..I'd use Mission Entry Popup to give the player directions. Latest intel shows that G is located at... You're not currently using it for anything else. It will unclutter your Nav Mish Verbiage, and still push me where you want me to go. Give your customs some sort of write-up. Even if it's a supposition Ex: Well, this Nemesis experiment may explain the local beef shortage Okay I see the "DINO-SAW-ER!" has a write up. Humorous...? But also...weird...We'll see how this fits in, plot-wise. (continued)

Okey doke... So, work in progress. I'll try to give some decent feedback. Remember: where I offer an opinion, that's all it is. The wonky mechanical stuff, if any, is always job #1. Job #2 is making it clean textually. The other elements, like plotting, interesting NPCs and all that, well, reactions can vary. What I think is interesting others may disagree with entirely. So, with that in mind. Mish screen: Let's go through what I see when your arc pops up. *I'd label it [SFMA] in your desc., to set it apart from farms. It's not mandatory but, if you check the Dev's Choice screen, you'll see a host of story missions labeled thusly. Which means anyone who plays AE looking specifically for Story-Focused arcs is going to see yours on the list. *Mish title is a bit on the nose. Feel like an allusion works better. For this one, what immediately spring to mind is the old Don Henley dong Building the Perfect Beast. Your title is already a play on that, but I'd take Jump Bot out of it. It's just, like, right on the nose, which makes it less interesting, imo. Mission ranges are a bit variable. 1-54, 30 -54 and 50-54 (likely bc it features Nem and Longbow, who have different ranges). This tells me I really need to run one of my 50s. I'm assuming these variables occurred due to enemy selection. You can do this the way you please, but I feel like a consistent range all the way through is a better choice, if only because it emulates how actual mishes run in the game. I'd just bite the bullet and either stick with 1-54, or range it on the upper end. Consistency is important (again, imo). *Desc: Your description, which I'm assuming is also WIP, explains where the arc fits in. Goo call. However, it doesn't sell the story's essence. It doesn't hook me. When you get around to polishing, consider something like these: Anky gives you contact and place. Just seeing Croatoa clues me in on what I can expect. White Rabbit and title also work synergistically to encapsulate what I am offering. Short. Sweet. Effective. @Ankylosaur has a wide range of mishes, so you can get some hints by checking out his various awarded arcs (and there are lots). Setting given (Praetoria, so if I really dig goldside, I'm in). Contact name provided. A hint at surprises (unexpected allies). Context given: where this fits in with established lore, and number in the series (#3), in case I want to play them all. @Darmian does a ton of stuff that fills in "lore cracks," so his stuff is a great guide for what you're doing. He's also won several awards. This is mine. Not showing as a stellar example, but rather, to show an alternative way to present a series (name/# presented up front, so searching/grouping is easy). Inciting incident is provided (a murder), and "well known suspect" would hopefully spur the player to wonder Well, who could that be? Second sentence is pretty nebulous and basic, though, so that could be done better. I'd call this a rather common and basic intro, which means it's a decent example for minimal expectations. Notice all three refer to you, the player character. Sell my involvement. Make me feel like I'm in it before I've even decided to play it. Your arc ethos is villainous, so let that tone filter in there, if you can hack it. Otherwise, just make me interested in this arc that is meant to fit in with lore I'm familiar with, and takes me beyond what I know. Okay, now that I've gone on and on with that, on to the missions.

Without knowing how the objectives appear on your scripting screen, here’s my suggestion: The first ally will need to be set to betray with a trigger associated with boss health (and I can’t recall if you can do that). The additional Allies should be set to spawn using the “Boss at X% health…” Unless any of them are not switched off as mandatory, they should spawn, and must then be completed. They should be escorts, however, or the ally rescue will signal mission completion. And, bad news, an rescued ally can be left behind without repercussion. An escort, however, cannot. As far as the rest, based on your mish descr, above, it sounds like you want Allies 2/3 to spawn off the defeat of ally 1, which is not something you can do.

Capstone, Bane Spider Ruben. You lead an army and whoop up on Longbow.

Just a reminder for those of you with time to burn (or are in the right time zone; or somehow got a job with 3-day weekends, like I have): I'll be running mishes Friday morning, likely starting round 8 am EST. Long shot, but (perhaps) see you there!

There was a time when, at the beginning of each FF run, I'd announce "this is my (insert ridiculously high number here, like "3,452nd") Frostfire mission." Even today, I'll pretty much drop what I'm doing to join one.

True. And I just ran with an FF team (of 6) yesterday. It's one of the few capstone regular story arcs you can still (fairly easily) get people for.

Back to Trackie and the ward mishes. Never know what you'll find out here: Um...hello...kitty...

Design Notes: LEVELS AND TESTING: Lvl range is 10-20. Tested with a L16 Sword/Shield Tank and L25 DP/Dev blaster (Exemplared to 20). Haven't tried with a lower level yet (namely 10), but the test toons are both DO's/SO's (with the latter having the most SO's of the two). Only issues occurred were when I got careless about drawing too many bad guys at once (which was rare), or got hit with the occasional stun power. Speaking of powersets: to reflect the character gaining knowledge of the enemy, the bad guy labels of the custom group change from generic for all of them (i.e., "Robber") to specific names for each (ex: "Gunner"). This reflects character knowledge and experience growing as they become more familiar. It was a bit of extra work, but I kinda liked doing that. No promises for future arcs, though.:-) Did many runs of Mishes 1-3. MANY. Only a few of 4 and 5, so I expect there may be some typos (lemme know). Tried to keep it relatively simple as far as maps and spawns. Be sure to check out your Clues screen at conclusion of Finale. It's key to the ending. I normally don't use these type of clues at the end of the arc, but didn't have any other way to wedge everything in, since the final screen features a conversation with the contact. INSPIRATION AND BACKGROUND: Piggybacking on this nugget in the lore: Martins occasionally moonlights as the Shadow Commando, a hero unlicensed by the FBSA. Ran into this while completing Twinshot with my trad-play tanker. When I looked into this, found there was just nothing there besides this reference and the one in Twinshot mish Investigate the Gadget Receipts. Basic Framework is liberally stolen from Lethal Weapon BG (made sense, since Rogers and Martins are homages to characters in the series). NPC names are all scrambled versions of chars from the series. Gave Rogers and Martins first names to expand upon that (Murphy for Murtaugh; Rigsby for Riggs). Created skins for Rogers/Martins, aging both of them a bit (gray hair). Couldn't access their specific holsters and such, so had to get creative. Changed up Martins's hairstyle and dress, to reflect him maturing over time. Mish titles homage inspired by the name of historical drug ring introduced in this arc. Anyone who knows 70s singer-songwriters will figure these out fast.:-) Thanks in advance, Crane

The little travel break you’d get between missions when running on teams. With all the teleportation it sometimes feels like it’s eyes and fingers glued to the system. Even breaks between mobs was welcome from time to time.

Even if you're a decent writer, it can take some time and practice to develop synergy with pace, presentation, and the occasional wonkiness of the AE engine. I've kept my older shit active if only to show I've gotten better (plus re-doing it would delete all the plays). Even with a great deal of experience in crafting (and I feel like I qualify at this point, though not on the order of someone like @Ankylosaur), you can still be slave to a wonky spawn, or poor power choices for enemies. You get one bad experience from a player, they might not bother to even try the rest of your stuff. If the clearly superior ones were shifted into the game, at least the players would know there's some merit to them. At this point, it's all word of mouth, and the DEV'S CHOICE tag (and, as we've seen, Dev's Choice comes and goes - too many other things to deal with). It's almost like you need 2 AE locations - one for farming, one for SFMA. Since the former overwhelms the latter, you'd likely only need one little door tucked away somewhere to accommodate traditional narrative (which I believe @Darmian has already suggested, to include locations). There just aren't as many. But that's really just pie-in-the-sky musing. Few people play the game to experience player-made content. The ones who consistently produce it do so because they enjoy the process (and perhaps the accolades). And, to be perfectly honest, I don't think the Devs really want any player-made content shifted into the regular game. Pretty sure that, since they're the ones that have to do the heavy lifting to get it done, that they may as well create their own stuff, and make that canon. It is their world, after all. The rest of us are just borrowing it. I do know that tools matter, and as long as the Devs have better tools, they're going to produce more polished stuff. They've been nice enough to throw some bones our way, though, and what we have gotten - and will get - should improve the quality of SFMA missions.

No worries, kemosabe. Might try a reload next week. Make sure to get a full team. I think some folks didn't jump in because I announced it was not a speed run.

Well, the Caverns gave us a lesson in humility. Didn't try to stealth until we wiped twice, and came all the way back in. Just got the boss door open when we got splunched by ambush from one side, and Kaago's minions from another. Ran out of clock. We had a stealther, but weren't speeding. Next time, maybe. Thanks to Black.Talon for coming out, and to our non-Rider stalwarts, who hung in there on our team of 4. I did not screenshot the names, so I can only remember General Fire. NOTE TO SELF: Trials are freakin' serious bizness, yo.:-)

You magnificent bastard. Have a gold star.:-) Omega Fury's already done CoTrans, but we'll be seeing an alt in there, so...all good. The plan is to sweep the whole damned thing.:-)

Agreed. I hope we can get good people and keep them.

Noted. Apologies. You didn't say that. But it seems like you're assuming a current new player is going to be unaffected (or less affected) in their initial choices by current conditions, while I feel they are. And, let's be clear - assumptions, which form the bedrock of our views, are often unstated. In any case, I'll withdraw the verbiage above, and attempt to just reframe what I was saying. Not really looking to argue. Just want to be clear about my own reactions (and, yes, assumptions). I feel like, were I just coming to the game, and starting where a majority of players are (Excel), that my perception of the game's current default mode (which really does appear to be farms and TF's) is pretty much SOP. And it would seem like, since the typical rewards are easier to attain, I feel like it wouldn't be long before I embraced those procedures, thus skipping the default mode. Now, would I eventually tire of that, try other things? I honestly don't know. I knew the game from before. When returning via HC, I started on Indom, since it was less populated, but then moved to Excel because there was more teaming there. Having gotten a few 50s, doing a small amount of incarnating, as well as numerous TF's and even some small amount of farming, I've since returned to more trad play, and found there's a lot of game there that I'd been ignoring that is pretty damned good, despite its age. Part of my motivation to re-explore trad play was to experience a different mode and challenge. Another part was to educate myself on the lore and storylines, so that I could mine them for possible lore-related SFMA story arcs I could write. Along the way, I have developed a fondness for those stories, warts and all. To me, it's a pity that all that seems to be getting ignored. I understand why a vet player might do so, particularly if their goal is just pushing the numbers, building for endgame, or just feeling godlike (which has been a thing for gamers since the days of only tabletop). That's a thing, too. Not mine, but it's no issue for me if it's anyone else's. Basically, I feel it would be worth it for a new player to experience more of the basic game before deciding what's worth their time. I know we can accommodate all modes of play. And I don't care if a newb starts one place and ends another. I just perceive the story-focused approach is dying, and Iament that. CoX is more than just a build engine to me. I feel like a new player would see that, too, provided they get to it...sometime. But, well, you're right - I really don't know what the new player experience is like right now, whether they're actually exploring the game, or just grabbing quick levels. No one does. Perhaps it'd be best to just ask a newb. If I knew any, I would.