cranebump

Setting-wise, Vince #1 is an ally. I didn’t have him run away because of his dialog. I guess I could send him to the nearest door, though.

Eek! Vince #2 is supposed to appear back up the map, while Vince #1 should stay put. “Give the all clear” obj should be a yellow barrel next to Vince #1, who basically tells you to scurry off to handle the unwanted guests. Vince #2 spawns in the battle area as the last obj, and is supposed to represent the same Vince. But since mish is over, there’s no reason to revisit Vince #1. I figured the player would just leave. Did they first one follow you pr something?

Have not yet tested with a vanilla toon (used exemp'd Incarnate for building runs). Will run a few with squishies to see what haps. Thanks in advance!

And, yes! We mean that mentally, as well! Annnnnnd, we’re back! Just in time for (a) Fall! Thankfully, that orange bar thingy there is faintly inaccurate. ‘Course, when you’re only level 9, everything seems like Power Supression. Tonight’s Under the Radar Review hidden treasure features: Excellent! I always wanted the skinny on...Okay, who the hell is RCM? M1: I am welcomed to the story by a pair of massive shoulders: Those eyes...how they glisten with compassion and...um, never mind… So, as part of Siege’s personal reformation project, I’m to track down a former NP citizen. And not tell the PPD. No problem. I never tell anyone the things I do - while I’m going them.:-) NOTE: Titles are in plain white text. Give ‘em some color, so’s they can burn my retinas! Praetoria...where they’ve perfected door aesthetics… Okay, so the Resistance is definitely casual these days: Except for that one guy back there, who’s like “LOCK AND LOAD, BI...Hey, can I borrow that paper?” So, missing person found. And, evidently, so is his stuff: Like, seriously...we can replace all that sh*t..l’il help? Rescue is a it of a long run, since Praet tunnels are long, long, long. Btw, the PPD showed up. I didn’t invite them. NOT MY FAULT! M2 So mish 2 is another rescue missing person, and a defeat all. So, I’m thinking….map size…How many Destroyers are there? Well first room sez: ...lots… So, found another homeless guy, and what does he do? Hefty, hefty, hefty! And that’s not all! Take that, h...er, YOU! Actually, right now, this is rather amusing…:-) NOTE: I I have to kill them all, why am I still leading this guy out? I mean, like….who’s gonna stop me? No ambushes. FYI: These guys… ...count in the defeat all… M3: Tour of Praet baddies continues with a visit to Syndicate. And another missing person. Who probably will not DROP HIS GD BAG AND FOLLOW ME! So, offer go and: Deja vu… Getting a dose of my own KB medicine: Either that, or I am auditioning for the circus. Never mind that! Grab your shopping cart and let’s go! So map is TINY, which makes a defeat all, a-okay. Actually was fun. P.S. My glowing head=I just popped L10. M4: Tour continues. Seers now. I havet to eliminate corrupt ones. But, man, ain’t they ALL corrupt? I mean...c’mon...Mother Mayhem? That nut don’t fall far from the...nut bush… Bit more complicated this time. Oh good...disembodied mental voice soothing me indicates Mayhem is here…:-/ Then again...hmmmm,... Okay MY mother never dressed like THIS: Erm...what did you just say? Not spoilering the why, sorry. Now THIS is glowie placement. M5: So now to go after who’s REALLY behind all this. Speaking of: What am I s’posed to do with these guys? ‘Cause if I have a choice? TANGO, MY FRIEND! And what tour ot Praet baddies would be complete without: Ticktickticktick... So, since I can’t spoiler it, I can’t report about the very clever twist in finale. You think you’re going to be facing ‘A,’ but instead, you face ‘Q.’ Not like omnipotent, irascible Q, but something unexpected. Like, you think so-and-so gonna be there, and they’re not, but then they sorta...are? Anyway, clever twist at the end. Good stuff: Clean and edited. Plot twist worked out well, because of defying player expectations (in a good way). All the Praetorian bad people are adequately represented.:-) Solid spawn points. Mayhem’s outfit. Tweaks: Colorize dat arc title, and the subtitles, as well, I’d say. This is a fairly standard practice. The gangs all here (but do they have to be?): Tour of all the bad guys makes for nice variety. I’m on the fence about whether it was necessary, as it fragmented the arc’s, um, “identity,” for lack of a better term. Guess it’s okay, since I’m being sent on a component hunt, and components can be all over. So...maybe this is no big deal. I just know it felt like I was checking opponent boxes at some point. Just my opinion, natch. “KILL ‘EM ALL!”: save for the tiny map mish, I’d get rid of that, mainly as players generally don’t like it. Long run: I personally didn’t care for the long slog back to the door in M1. I have the guy. Must I get to know him (and his shopping cart?):-) Also: Objects are part of defeat all in M3, but they aren’t mandatory objectives. I don’t know that players will skip them, but, if they do, they’ll have to turn around and destroy them if they pass them up as non-essential due to not being listed as such. My kingdom for a verb!: Bit more direction as to what we’re doing in some cases, especially when we need to Defeat someone. Couple of objectives are just the target name. I think this works on Mayhem, because you want her role to be a surprise. But the others? Nothing is really gained by leaving it nebulous. VERDICT: 4/5. Solid Praet arc. Couple of nice twists (I thought “boss” obj in M5 was very clever). Clean and edited. Play if: You can’t get enough of Praetoria (or Barry White). Don’t play if: You don’t like Praet maps, vills, and those beautiful, beautiful doors. That’s all folks. Happy Autumn and all that. Try not to drown in Pumpkin Spice. Vaya Con Frijoles, Crane

My most active incarnate is conceptually a normal with guns & arrows. He has athletic run+sprint+whatever the speed bump is from AR/Tac Arrow. I purchase jet packs for when I need to fly, and tend to use p2w jump pack a lot when traveling. It’s no SS or SJ, but serves. Are usually don’t eat any of these when I’m on teams because of all the team transports and his own mish TP power.

NOTES: *Working "between the cracks" on a Scrapyarder angle. *Sort of a meditation on the vigilante ethos. *Ran with a tricked out tank, so looking for tests with squishies (which I'll conduct, as well). Thanks in advance, Crane

Yeah that did. Should have tried that first. Apologies for wasting time and space.

This is what I keep getting. Local network settings are unchanged. Everything seems normal. However, none of my accounts are connecting. Gonna just do a shutdown and restart. See what that does.

Can't seem to get into the game. Servers are green, and I'm using the new launcher. I assume it's something on my end, but thought I'd check with others anyway.

Is the person actually a physically large taker of dumps, or are the said taken dumps structurally huge? Or...is it BOTH?

No need to look any further people. Everybody move along. Everybody move along. 🙂 (I’ll TAKE it!)

Okay gents & gentiles...er, gentlewoman...what the hell, gentle-PERSONS (I’m TRIGGERED!) Josh Jones is back! And ready to....well just what IS he ready to do. Let’s see… PERRRRFECT! I’m a whole level 8. I can crack skulls. Including my own. To it, then. M1: Great...I’m working with Nancy Reagan… FYI: as a scriptor, ol’ Crane just LOOOOOVEES this guy: P.S. Check out Ordinary People, parts 1-3, featuring THIS GUY and is buddy Pep (end shameless Crane plug). Okay, so this ISN’T the strip club. Check. Style thing, but I’m not much of an “everything right up front guy.” Feels like it’s all being thrown at me. On the OTHER hand, I know what I gotta do, and this probably avoids the ol’ “let’s run back and forth and find stuff'' phenomenon that AE loves to throw at us designers. FYI: You can clear a small amount clutter by just putting Haul in the Operation Leader, or Arrest Skull Leader (depending on who he/she be). Again? Hey, I only caught you once, dude. Oh, Ed, must I arrest you AGAIN? Okay, then, the FIRST TIME? 2 clues in Eduardo’s Room (which is adjacent to Marvin’s Room, mayhap?). One clue points to another location. Nice job presaging future developments. Alas, poor Yoric. He hath been shotteth (nice job using one of lit’s most famous skulls):-) +9000! Dude...get some sun...seriously… Actually, I’ve got a load of buckshot on yo’ arse, son! Btw, your brother sez “ouch!” DONE! Easy, Breezy, trapeze-y...er, yeah… M2: Why thank you...that IS an apt description of my life...never leaving KR...always at AE...eating the same...hot dogs every day…(sniff) I’VE WASTED MY LIFE, MOM! Ol’ Joe sends me to take out lab equipment, and arrest whoever’s in charge. I **could** do that, but how about I just push for legislation legalizing ‘dine. You know, CONTROL it. Regulate it. TAX it, and...what? Is this not a good idea? That’s the ice water in my veins, yo! Okay, so what the freaky-deak is THIS? We just got twisty. LIKE! Once again, LOTS to do. All the space in this warehouse, and the Skulls decide to play Tetris. So, after beating up a couple Seers, I find out the new stuff is called “Necrodyne.” Which sounds, I dunno, preternatually dangerous? (mystery deepens…) Hmmm...gee wonder if this could be a reference to, I dunno, the boss? Guess I’m ultimately looking for this guy: Meanwhile, back at the ‘dine ranch... Yeah, well, you evidently don’t see far enough, bro. Another custom. Nice. Didn’t I say this was dangerous? Mo-om! The underboss is coming on to me! Looks like a li’l typo here. Colon followed by ellipsis. Bit of a walkaround finding the last 2 crates, mainly because I don’t game with headphones and couldn’t hear the damned glowies. But we grab ‘em. We also get Undertaker’s address. Strangely, he’s at the morgue (kidding). M3 Nice touch. Okay, I do have plenty of greens, so I feel, “somewhat inspired?” Okay, maybe not so kidding up there… So, eventually.... Bad news for Undie. I dinged lvl 9 during mish, so finale was easier than it would’ve been. Under’s got pets and some grav stuff going, but I still had a big PURP buzzin above my head, so I was good. Then these guys came to deliver my spam and sardine sammies! Okay, so overall: GOOD STUFF: Clean, clear writing. Only noticed the one typo. Customs! Just enough new stuff to keep it interesting. Not overdone on power selections (i.e, not indulging in any of Crane's bad habits). Great use of “window dressing” glowies on the last mish (I forgot to take a pic of the HUGE crate). Bit of a twist on the whole ‘dine (‘dyne?) thing. Spawns not really an issue, since nothing was chained. You could roam around and find stuff everywhere (which has me rethinking the whole, “not too many objectives at once” thing). TWEAKS: I can’t think of anything major. It’s a lowbie arc, and it plays dead on well for a lowbie like ol’ JJ here. It's solid as railroad spike...so to speak...:-) Verdict: 4/5: It’s solid, if unspectacular (this is not a gripe - I’ll take solid time and time again). Got a lot packed into 3 mishes. Bravo! Not everyone can do that. Play this if: You want more Skull action than KR gives you. Now that I think about it, play this, then play Cranebump’s Ordinary People as a follow up (yes, I’m piggbacking here, because man, would this be a great intro to the other thing - you meet ol’ JF, he calls you up later for more stuff...okay @Coulomb and I are opening up a law office). [End especially shameless reminder plug]. Don’t play if: You’re not a fan of lowbie play, or some sort of snooty d-bag who refuses to do the grunt work for the cops.:-) That’s it for now. Adios all, and Vaya con Frijoles. Crane

I think you can’t really take every speck of what Kyksie says 100% seriously (though If he says there’s time wasters, there likely are). He’ll point out the basic stuff (like missing custom critter descriptions, a lack of basic proofing, for example) that indicates a lack of basic, um, professionalism, for lack of a better term. But it sorta reads to me as part review, part entertaining banter. This is definitely evident in the review’s last paragraph, where there’s the legitimate criticism of using AE as a vanity exercise, juxtaposed with the snarky end comment about Hot Pockets. It’s fairly clear that was meant to be funny. Not sure I’d find it so if I were the author, but I do think that, if I publish something, I have to be ready to be skewered. Because rarely does anyone create something that everyone likes. P.S. I appreciate the mention, above. I didn’t think anyone actually read my little reviews. If they’re helpful, I’ll try to do more of them.

Sorry about that purple text. I was certain I had changed it to yellow, after Darmian ran it and commented on the same thing. I’ll have to check it again. Thanks for running it, and the feedback.

TWEAKS: Fixed several typos (found by @Darmian. Changed text color on Dross's Clue (yeah, that purple was a bad idea). Some minor verbiage about how one gets to Night Ward (as in, "I've no idea how he got there...").

AGH! Must I say it again, Darm? (D*************************************!):-)

I...think so. It’s the one where Vetrano appears in cut scene, and you have Desdemona escort. Pendragon is on it. This was on a L50 team in Night Ward.

Damn, Sinclair, wouldja just DIE, already?

[SFMA] DATA calls on you to lend a hand with a current conundrum. As always, though, there's more on the horizon than initially appears. Can you bring yet another sinister plot crashing to earth? Or will your unseen foe achieve their sky-high aspirations? TESTING NOTES: *Tested with incarnate levelled down, then switched to a pretty squishy L32 blaster (Psi/Rad). He handled it fine, save for being KD'ed a lot, because he's a defenseless putz. *First map spawn chain usually keeps forward momentum - except for the last run I did, which put 3rd hostage behind the previous 2. I'm hoping this was an outlier. *On the fence about Finale DIFF. Story-wise, works, but some timing and placement issues can make it a bear, or an anti-climax. Made some adjustments, but jury's still out for me. Thanks in advance, Crane

Damnit! I forgot the freakin' catboys! My extreme competence bit me in the ass again!:-) (thanks for the writeup).

Of course I messed up the arc name and the ID but @Take One fixed it so you’re good 🙂

What if Dream Doctor died turning back the Rikti? End game sure looks different.

Okay, here's my run-through. I went with: KR Devil, an exemplared Incanate AR/TA. Why? I don't trust you, man.:-) M1 GREAT costume on contact. I’d title the missions, but that’s a style thing more than anything else. I feel like it’s another opportunity to add thematic components or easter eggs. And sometimes it’s fun to figure out if there are certain references involved (pop culture, Shakespeare, etc.) Feel like we need a period before “she has this magic doll.” Use of highlighting is interesting, but not sure we need as many things highlighted as you have. Typically, a highlight for the main mish objective (to accentuate the main objective). But, we’ll see what happens inside. Maybe it’s foreshadowing or something? Style, but maybe carriage return before “See you there!” Also I’d put “here’s the address” on the same line as Awesome! Miss Loud dewc: should be “but, often,” instead of “but often.” Great use of the escort. Excellent dialogue all the way around (NPCs, perps). Broom...hehehehe. Now THAT’s a neat trick.:-) Strong use of patrols. Fyrestorm down! SUMMARY: I could’ve done without the glowie chain. Looks like it was mainly to spawn an ambush. If so, maybe unlock the extra glowies by making them non-required. Then, when i seek out the doll, I might get it right, or I might trigger an ambush. Otherwise, I’m just running around for no reason. This is still a very good mission, and excellent use of the Hellions/customs. NOTE: Feels like the Nav Obj should be “Keep the kids out of trouble” or something. It IS a search and rescue, but feel like that could be a mish title instead. Not a “have to,” by any means. M2 Entry text: go there, like, right now. (comma needed) Contact text is character-rich. Nice job. Not sure why ??? is a mission goal? (the wolf, yes?) The NPCs are great! Ice cream vendor, etc. Nice touches. FYI: I HATE maps like these, but it worked well because it wasn’t overly cluttered. Wish it was **slightly** smaller, but the kids were easy to spot due to consistency of baddies. Felt weird spraying them with fire, though. (I'm a jackass...)😕 M3 Send off text: hehehehe...My toon is the King’s Row Devil and he’s telling me how to get around KR.:-) If it’s THIS crate, I can’t access it...yet… There we go. Second room. Only downside to window dressing - wondering if I'm gonna have to click ALL this stuff at some point. Rats in the sewer. Now, why didn’t I ever think of that?:-) (like, seriously) Lots of interesting window dressing (objects). M4 I’m working the Goonies…(sigh) 🙂 EXCELLENT multi-spawns of Skulhead. And self-deprecating reference “yeah, whatever beat this guy so we can move on” is a great touch! Ha. Niiice…. By this time, I’m like “Where are all the freakin’ adults?” Feels like I’ve been dropped into Stranger Things. Window dressing is one of the best things about the arc. That’s a lot of work just to create ambiance. Bravo. I am sooooo not a kid, kemosabe… Must assuredly… No, I got this. Y’all just...stand there…:-/ (and bullets MATTER, chick with the British boarding house mistress name!) Annnnnd...DONE! Good stuff: *The object window dressing is excellent. *Use of NPCs is superior (esp. “window dressing” (civilians in outdoor map [who are ignoring the kids being bullied]; “Guard duty”).:-/ *Dialogue is excellent. *A unique arc, due to the kid-centric focus. *It doesn’t take itself too seriously.:-) *It’s clean and fairly quick. Tweaks: *The glowie chain on M1. No reason to go to the trash can, the desk, the lockers, etc. Surprised Kyksie didn’t mention this, because it feels like one of those “time wasters.” I **think** I know the reason (ambush spawn?). But I’d do that the way I suggested, above. *A few minor grammatical things (commas) *What's up with the wolf? Never was mentioned again. Or did I miss that? (First rule of Poetics - everything should be attached to the plot in some way-but I digress...as you did there....):-) [I'm sure I just missed something). *I felt funny spraying down bullies with fire. Kinda wish the Hellions were messing with them instead (which would fit the whole “doll is magical and they want it” throughline). *I feel highlighting is overused. I don’t think “me and my sister” needs to be in green. Names are fine. Highlighting the major objective is fine. The rest, I’m not sure the need is there. It doesn’t hurt anything, however. *Just a personal preference: I like the individual mishes to be titled, but, again, personal preference. It’s fine the way it is. Verdict: It’s damn near a 5-star arc. Most of my suggestions are simply cosmetic. Better than probably the first 10 things I attempted. And you got a BEST EVER! from Kyks, so file that away (for the dark times....when you're scripting and the damned. thing. just. won't. work.):-) Well done! Keep it up! Crane

Some merits out there. For example, Willy Starbuck is 23. I only know that because I’ve been running a character primarily focused on pool powers and have been soloing old contacts. They do have a lot of Hunt mishes, but they don’t take too long, unless I happen to be slightly under leveled. If that’s the case, I grind up or do radios. Pick up explore tips and so on.

Appreciated, thanks. I agree on the comment about the judge. I’m also not sure what I did right, but I’m not going to belabor that at the moment. Thanks again, and looking forward to the next one!