cranebump

I agree- if a douche bag falls in a forest, they definitely hear themselves. -) More on point: I’ve had maybe a handful of instances on teams where people weren’t their, um, best selves. But I imagine I may be missing a lot of kerfluffle by never having General switched on, on any character I have?

Grats to this month's winners!

Hail of Bullets, but with the Fire Breath animation. Because I've always wanted to shoot my mouth off indiscriminately.

I asked, but couldn't hear them through the shit.

It's true. Been that way since I had to deal with Bargle, Lareth the Beautiful, and and that crazy hermit near the KotB.

You can create a villain in chargen and play there. Chose villain when you enter, or when you reach decision point in Galaxy tutorial.

Ah, 5th. Every veteran player’s 2nd favorite edition.:-)

Off topic, but: Man the animation for one of the SB powers, that huge, stone marshmallow, just covers the screen. If you're zoned in as a melee toon, and you're running with multiple rock throwers, it can be hard to see what you're doing sometimes.

Sandman: spend an hour tracking down a single runner in Pos1 finale after someone else spawned the ambush early (again). Bit o’ Coin: log out all your alts while they are standing on top of the huge display behind Blue Steel in KR.

My L50 BR/SR toon had some issues hitting from time to time. But, somehow, ol’ Gym Beam didn’t care either way. Libations matter.

Familiarity and ease, I guess. Or maybe versatility. Of all my stable, I play KR Devil the most because I just like the interplay between TA and AR. Feels like I can help a team in various ways thanks to the flexibility of TA (-acc, slow, stun, immobilize). And since all his Kbs are proc’ed to KD, he can damage with some soft control. True, he’s not awesome at any one thing, but he can Swiss Army knife on just about any level. So, add feeling useful to teams as another reason.

The only thing that sometimes ravels out as “story” for me is with individual characters developing their own personal nemesis group, by virtue of contact selection partly, and partly by what “feels right.” For example, my staff/Ninj scrapper running Crimson arc, with an origin as a “former Black Ops who got out and made off with some high tech gear”, felt perfect with Malta as his nemesis. KR Devil will always be a Skull buster, due to gun toting and vigilante BG. Of course, this is all just me storytellIing in my head. Story in this game seems to be what one makes it.

AE scripting

Design Notes: *Two of the "customs" are basically a special group of The Lost, and some specially-designed PPD (I needed an aura on the latter, for story purposes). *Inspiration came from the question: Why are there no women in The Lost? *I anticipate this may be a springboard for a second story involving this group, especially since the Dawn Patrol connection needs more explaining (I think). *Costumes: rather than riff off the male Lost, I decided the new group had their own look, due to differences in how the Lost virus affects women. It's...sort of weird, actually.:-) *Initial tests had a hardy toon. Am in the process of running with some others less tricked-out. Thanks in advance, Crane

It’s still an MMO because it has a lot of players playing online. I think that’s the baseline definition maybe? Not the teaming aspect. As for your antipathy to teams, the “value added” comment says a lot. It seems like you’re seeing your teammates not as people, but rather tactical choices, power slots, and efficiency add and subtracts. And while I guess that’s pretty important under these new challenge settings, I feel like, for a lot of us, teaming isn’t about adding value, but adding the people themselves. What makes a team fun isn’t always (or ever?) about efficiency. If it were, then of course every team would be a disappointment in some manner, because there’s no such thing as perfection, and therefore no way to ever be satisfied. All that said, there’s still plenty of soloing out there for folks that want to avoid the madding crowd. I’m withholding any verdict on the new challenges til I play them. I do like the idea of no incarnate powers, if only to avoid the monotony of constant alpha strikes.

A backpack selection that isn’t for “school.” More styles of rocket boots.

I KNEW it!

Ahhhh...that explains the basic idea. That last mish was a hot shot! I didn't bother to clear or anything. I may have to play again and not save her to see what happens.

Annnnd…we’re BACK! Josh Jones is, that is. This turkey is just in time for turkeys! Er…and stuff. Hey…why ain’t you groovin’ with me, friend? The basics: So we’re at L10 (AR/WP Sent) in my exclusive, monthly AE romp. Since Dec is a birthday month for ol’ Crane here, thought I’d do some quick hits (arcs of 3 mishes or less). Also grants me a backload of reviews, just in case I overcelebrate next month and forget what’s whut.:-) Let’s start with this short-short from this proven stalwart: It’s a L15-20, which is above our own current power, but what the heydee-ho. Let’s give it a go! Our contact is an old fav: Will I be your yang? You betcha! Or something…Btw I can do stuff with my arms too, kemosabe. M1: Penny’s in trouble! (fancy that). And clocks are involved! (ya don’t say):-) So in we go annnnd: You’re not clockwork…(and har-har-har, spider face) So I take a few pot shots and… Sheesh…they want that statue, don’t they? A little further in… Take that, Dark Knight! Or whatever! I I sense you might know something… So Dread tells me "Yo…we don’t even know who Penny is. Those stinky Lost have her. Want a sammie? (okay, he doesn’t say it in quite that way, but this is how Josh hears things…it’s a gift, I know). M2 So, Mr. Y sez, Hmmmm, well, okay. Here’s a map. Once received, we finally confirm what we’ve known all along: Yep…Clocks have no artistic talent.:-) So off we go! Hmmm…there’s an objective I’ve never seen.:-) No Penelope YIN, but: If your name is Penelope, you WILL be kidnapped. Mish ends with this nugget: Speak for yourself, Clockie. M3: So NOW the stuff hits the Clock fan: So here we go-and fast! Hey…no one invited the big guy. We do a fighting (shooting) withdrawal, and boom! Done. Unfortunately, Penny goes off with the CW King, and Mr. Yin says, Thanks for nothing, douche bag. But we WIN! And I dinged. GOOD STUFF: Clean as a whistle. Saw one minor (possible) typo (clockwork vs. Clockwork, since it’s a name thing. Cannon-related-slips right into the Yin narrative. Humor! (the kidnapping of the various Penelopes was unexpected). Presented a fair challenge to my SK’ed L10 (who played at 15). Managed to slip in 3 diff villain groups. Felt like an in-game mish. Last mish with short timer was a hoot! TWEAKS: Doesn’t really need any as is. I think it’s supposed to be a drop-in to fill an in-game gap, so any inherent lack of resolution is taken care of by playing the Yin arcs (I think…I’m not the lore-hound other folks are, so this could be a mistake on my part). Verdict: Design-wise, it’s 5/5. Runs smooth as buttah! Story is well-crafted and plausibly drops into the existing game. It’s a short one (3 mishes), so it’s not super twisty and turny. Nor is it super deep, story-wise. Play this if: (1) You’re “yinnin’” for a slightly offbeat take on Clocks; (2) You like straightforward arcs where they don’t bog you down with extraneous reading/clues because they’re weaving this weird, alt-world (guilty here).:-) (3) You like ‘em fast and solid (this one is). Don’t play if: You want something completely new and/or nuanced. This isn’t that. Rather, it’s a straight-up, get-in -there -and-do-it romp, right down to that last mish with the short timer. It’s got a story, but it’s dependent on in-game lore. Nice add to the Yin story, overall. For our next run, we do with a work-in-progress: So, overall, I LOVE the premise. As far as design, all of the pieces are there, just needs some work (obviously, since designer marked this as a WIP). With that in mind: For starters: No titles used at all: I guess that’s okay, but it’s a chance to add flavor to the story (or at least shamelessly plug it by reminding me of its name as a constant header).:-) This is not a big deal, though. Carriage returns: Need to separate your paragraphs, or you end up with this: This is a pervasive issue throughout the arc. By the way, this sort of thing happens to the best of them (right, Darm?):-) M1: Detectives and Family are in close proximity to each other, but are not fighting. They should be scrapping, but they’re not. Mish is about stopping the PPD before they wrangle explosives (ie., before they stop the Fam), so this doesn’t fit the mish. Placing them in battles with PPD would make more sense here. Also: if Fam are present, aren’t they going to mention me coming in and taking down PPD? Perhaps some verbiage that says I’m dressed as a Marcone, then make the Marcone patrols friendly to me. Place battles in the rear of the facility, near the explosives. OR: the PPD has already taken out Fam guards, but I arrive, wipe them out, and make it seem like the family did it. Otherwise, one wonders about red flags in the operation, causing it to be shut down. Now, some cool stuff: Love these white suits.:-) And nice touches like this really make an arc: And a backup photo! Nice work, gents. Now have some bullets. M2: Problem: Multiple patrols with the same dialogue. Spawn 1 patrol to speak the speech trippingly off the tongue, then make a second group of mute patrols. Otherwise, you get this: Double entry due to patrols=needless clutter (this is always a thing with dialogue, unfortunately). Sometimes this cannot be avoided. In this case, though, you can trim the excess a bit. Explosives in M2 are different from explosives in M1. Remember that pic up there? That somehow morphed into the small barrels with timers on them. I **guess** they were tweaked or something, but I think it might make more sense, then, to just have explosives be in crates in M1, ready for shipment. M3: Bit of a letdown here, narratively. After all that buildup, the mish dialogue is extremely terse. I could understand that, if time were precious, but I didn’t get that indication from Agent Six. She seemed laconic. If it’s “No time to waste!” then make that clear. Otherwise, it’s a bit of a letdown. We do get some customs in M3: Who are these guys, indeed? VERDICT: It’s a work-in-progress, as noted. So, some fixes to make. That said, the big things are done well. Perps have motivation for what they’re doing (ex: Haskins in M2; the “luring” of bad guys to the docks, explaining why I have Hellions, Mooks there, and so on). The shadow org’s ultimate goal is GREAT. And since you reveal who they “really” are, that could take us into a 4th and 5th mish to get at the source of the whole thing. In short, this is a great idea. I want to steal it.:-) Meanwhile, make the minor fixes, pump up the tension in M3 (add a short timer? It’s a small map), and you’ve got a solid arc here. Good bones here! And now, a second work in progress: Only one mish so far, but it is pretty well done. Two things: Map seems huge and empty. Clues spawn is a bit wonky. The clue you’re supposed to recover pops up at top, which was after the two clues associated with the bosses. Might work better if the right glowie popped up after the 2nd boss? Good stuff: Didn't catch any typos The customs in this were a challenge for my L11. Good fights. And they be uuuugly, too!:-) Interested to see where this goes. And finally, just a quick report here on a finished Holiday arc: Your wish is sooo not my command. VERDICT: Oh, this was fun. Got to riddle a couple of pop stars’ butts with Josh bullets while they were singing their obnoxious songs. Novel use of objects. Humor. Interesting maps and customs. It's really good stuff. Enjoyed it! Thanks to this month's designers for sharing their creativity. A big **BUMP** goes out to @Take One, @PW, @Kartanian, and @FlyingCarcass. In the meantime, keep it super, all. Crane

And then we have this one: Gun envy?

With Phase Shift a part of SS, it's now pretty handy to zoom through mobs in mish. I still don't take SS as a matter of course, though. Most of my chars use inherent travels, with jet packs and such. Unless they fly, which I like better than SS. That said, of all the combos I've used, SS+SJ has been my favorite overall. Man, you can get around.

Whipsmart. Gadget guy. Micromesh armor. Acrobat. Tech genius. However...no electrified whip.:-( Experimented once using a petless MM for the whip powers, but it was a bit...strange. Soooo the versions of Whippie I have run as a character use various blaster powers. The latest is a BR/Regen. Not bc it fits, though. Cool thing, though: I ran my Acrobattle character as a Staff-lete in a TTRPG, so when Staff became available back in the day, I was deee-lighted.

Ah. Well, I don't really want them to fix the second one.:-) I should probably clarify - anyone else have a "happy accident" like the second one?

Posted this one before. Jet pack+Costume pieces= ROCKETS EVERYWHERE, MUTHA****A! Tried to replicate it on a different toon. No dice. FYI: This char does not have the Flight power. This is just what happens when I activate the jet pack. It's also why I passed on Flight. This looks cooler.

I know that, when you're using one of the melee weapon powers (mace, is it?) that, if you enact the Ghost Axe, it will spawn on top of the regular weapon, creating this weird, hybrid thingy. I also have an interesting sort of flight glitch that only occurs on one character (which I'll post later). And then, a few minutes ago, I drew my weapon with my arms crossed and: I think I may have permanently harmed my pec. Or maybe my underarm. Or both. Anybody else got any of this interesting things to report? (P.S. I tried the same thing with my bow, but no such luck - just couldn't stab myself in the chest with it).:-)