cranebump

By yelling as I leap away: Hulk is the strongest there iiiiiiiisssssss!

One of my mains is AR/TA blaster. Can’t provide comparison, but he does hold his own solo and on team.

The first time the song is mentioned by Boogie Man.

Okay a little blow-by-blow: Capitalize song title All I Want for Christmas. Nice use of name and archetype, for I am badass.:-) Info on guard says city of villains. Is it intended for vills? Can’t remember. Nice use of “loudspeakers. Heh…mall Santa… Ha. A Creyphone.:-) Nice–brought in RFO. Took out Shockstorm easy peazy. Ah–right, since it is RFO it must be villianish. Gotcha Sorry Georgie. No soup for you! All I want is bulllets...up my-HEY! Verdict: It's a nice, clean, straightforward arc. Clean spawns. Interesting maps. Novel use of singing "loudspeaker." And RAAADIOOOOO FREEEE NOXIOUS MUSIC! Looks good to me, Kemosabe. I enjoyed it. Good luck in the contest! Best, Crane

I wouldn’t count on it 100%. In the arc I just completed, the “unaware” text popped behind a door just fine for me, but it was on the 3rd floor of the wish, when I had approached the door, before opening. So proximity may still be an issue. The only surefire way I know is to spawn a talker on its own is after completion of a previous objective. Ex: in “Match Point,” you enter map, meet with lone NPC guard who radios boss “They’re here.” Boss spawns further back, says “Send them to me. I have something to show them” (or some such). Any other way ive done that type of dialogue has been a crap shoot.

If you just need to cure them with the wand, try the Gish in Kings Row, or Sky (as mentioned), or trundle into the sewers in AP and you’ll eventually find mobs of them.

TEST NOTES: Ran most tests with my exemplared Incarnate. Ran final tests with a L31 Beam/Regen Sentinel. He's got some nice IO sets, so didn't have much trouble. DESIGN STUFF: The ' in the title is not a typo (but maybe it should be?) Took inspiration from old John Wayne movie, "The Shootist." (if you've seen it, you'll get the connection by the end [if not before]). The "forgettable trio" are minor perps in actual arcs, two of them in IP. One of my guiding questions was, "Wonder what happens to guys like these?" Wanted to use fewer customs, and some maps I haven't used. Also wanted to do some unusual bad guy mixes. My rationale as to why they're working together is in the Boss desc's of Mish 3. Probably makes little sense, but, hey - my made up BS, my rules.:-) Threw in some silly stuff in M1, just 'cuz. Thanks in advance, Crane P.S. Thanks to everyone who's played my arcs, and especially for the nominations, nods, critiques and friendly advice. You're all my heroes. See ya around the Row, kemosabes.

Boss dialogue spawns in a similar manner as other NPCs (unaware, aware, attacked, takes damage, etc). You do get more room for text, though, in their first speech.

I can say with a good degree of certainty that pretty much everyone here shares those annoyances.:-)

Yep. innocuous strikes is so blatantly not innocuous it’s funny.:-)

It’s like being a low budget film director. Forces you to be creative due to limitations. I can’t imagine AE plotters will ever have the same tools as original scrollers, or the Devs. Considering those limits, though, what some people accomplish is amazing.

Brawl:-) Actually the staff power Aoe (Eye of the Storm, I think?), where, if you miss, at least you did some cool Break Dancing.

Thanks for taking the time to go through everyone's arcs. And, of course, thanks for the nod, above.:-)

tl;dr *best bet with Allies/Rescues it to use the "When rescued" and "clue" texts as your main mules (sometimes "when they become aware works," but not always) *try placing NPCs far apart, perhaps using multi-level maps, where they appear on different floors. There's no easy way to fix it. They all seem to activate on the "unaware" setting. I've had slightly better luck with Ally dialogue, using the "when they become aware of the player." It's still dicey. You can cut down on the "super pop" thing by using multi-level maps, and placing your NPCs on different floors. If they're far enough away, that will sometimes give you more flexibility. Only way to know is to run tests. And hope the spawns are consistently placed (another thing altogether). One thing I've taken to doing to spread the Clue love in dialogue boxes: If you want to deliver some sort of ancillary clue, spawn a single patrol after an initial objective. EX: After Ally Rescue, patrol spawns, says, "Did you hear something?" "Not now, Burt. We have to get these munitions moved, or Zapshug will kills us!" Next objective might spawn at the same time, saying, "Defeat the site boss" (which the player now knows as Zapshug). Funny thing about dialogue. I was working on a boss string, where boss, when aware says, "Hello," and when takes damage, says "And goodbye," meaning Goodbye to YOU, hero. The boss got one-shot by my sniper and blurted out, "Hello. And goodbye."then fell over :-)

Much appreciated for the recognition and your efforts. And I should add that part of the reason that particular ARC went the way it did was directly due to the comment you made concerning the previous ARC, and whether or not you were still a vigilante. So thanks for providing me with the springboard. 🙂 And, of course, congratulations to our winner.

True, though some coordination and acknowledgement of such when you're ostensibly a team is always helpful. Even if it's something like the leader of the last Synapse team I was on offered when they said, "Solo, if you can handle it." We had several missions featuring various pods - duos, trios, a group of 5 - and maybe a soloist running here or there (taking out Long Tom, while the rest fought some mobs). It was a small thing, but it set the expectation, and everyone followed it without complaint or comment.

Movers & shakers behind the scenes, with vast resources, who are smart and calculating. But, oh that Achilles Heel-they have a blind spot, because it’s personal. Basically, Kingpin when he set out to bring down Murdoch, had him shattered, but then:

I’ve been running Regen as a second set for my Sentinels lately, along with Leadership. Limited in the number of attacks, but great buffs and endless recovery. You can also run, say, fighting with DP/Regen to get some melee in there.

I think you’re right that Haley is likely an EMP Defender. She’d be some form of buffer or protector, which means she could also be a bubbler (though soloing with that...erg). She might be some form of sonic. And I haven’t played the new electric sets at all, nor do I have a water toon. Maybe something unusual like that. She’s a contact for a magic origin, so maybe her own origin is magic, as well? Maybe Kord outfits her with relics discovered...somewhere.

That is an awesome concept for Peebles. What server did you run on? Feels like an themed SG might be in order. The Alter Egos? The Contact Tracers? 🙂

I run primarily on Excelsior on THU evenings. I get in some play on the weekends, usually morning or afternoon. The tribute characters are all on Torchbearer, though., simply because it’s quieter, and I was soloing. So far, I have: Goldenward: Tony Kord, a play on IM as the Golden Avenger. Ran to L8 or 9, I think. Street Angel: Rachel Torres. Ran to L5 or so. Ivory Leopard: Nandelu. Just gathered explore badges. Omnibus: Jon SJ-Smythe. Logged him in. Didn’t play him. If there were enough interest, it’d be nice to run these guys as a team, along with Haley.

Little background: One of my Incarnates (and a toon I run fairly regularly on Excel) is KR Devil, who is basically Juan Jiminez from King's Row (note: I've seen his last name spelled two ways - this one appears to be correct). Yesterday, ran a new version of an old character idea on Torch. Running solo, so smaller pop was preferable. Running without 2XP, I picked up every AP contact that would allow me to do their mishes, and continued this into KR. As I went through Tony Kord's mish, I got to thinking, What (where) is this guy's super ID? I mean he IS Tony Stark/Ted Kord, so where is Iron Beetle, or Beetle Man, or Steel Scarab or something? So, then I thought, well, since I ran "Juan Jiminez" as a super hero, why not do the same with this guy? Which led to, I wonder what other contacts might lead the ol' super double life? This led me to consider creating and playing the following contacts, all as part of a team (maybe an irregular one, but a team nevertheless). Worse case, I might develop a series of AE arcs around them (since I'm looking for my next project). With that, I'm looking for ideas from the talented community to go with the ones I've already got, below (all in various stages of conception/development): Tony Kord: Some conglomeration of Iron Man/Blue Beetle (or other techie guy with $$). I figure this is an Energy/Energy Sentinel, though could work as a blaster for the KB melee (since I'll be soloing, that could come in handy). Rachel Torres: I managed to work up a basic character and get her in game as Street Angel (an homage to the Astro City character, though I am thinking she needs to be KR Angel, as bookend to Juan). Her detective BG and vendetta with the Lost has me picturing her last tussle was worse than the previous (says she was nearly killed early in her career by them, and lost her partner). So, I thought maybe ol' Tony might've provided her some minor augmentation (maybe a reticle or something for night sight; perhaps a cybernetic arm?). Currently have her as a Stalker, MA/SR. Jonathan St. John-Smythe: Seems like a support guy that works the lab, but thought of him as Omnibus (the guy who does the research, provides the designs and such, which Kord funds). Could be some sort of Mastermind? Kiros Nandelu: He already has minor powers (ability to see into the ultraviolet and infrared spectrums). And it sure seems easy enough to imagine him as some version of Black Panther, so probably a scrapper? Rebecca Brinell: Fits a similar niche as JSJ Smythe (and might be a better choice than him for a super dude [-ette?]), but I do not have a concept for her yet, but likely a Troller (urgh...would not be a fun solo). Haley Philips: It'd be interesting to do something with this contact, considering her backstory feels like a really interesting cover for her alt job: As an inspector for the Health Department, Haley investigates health hazards associated with super-powered, super-natural and alien events. Her group is dedicated to making sure the city´s residents live in safety, and that their homes protect them from Paragon City´s exotic threats. No concept just yet, but sure seems like a Defender. That's all I have spitballed at the present. I'll be running contacts on Torch for a bit to see what else comes up (and who else I've forgotten). Look forward to hearing any ideas folks may have. Thanks in advaance, Crane

Looks like our group sorta went pffffft...BUT... I am usually on THU. You can always hit me up for STUFF (whatever "stuff" may be). Like tonight, I just logged on Acrobattle just to check out rolls. We're still small and nimble.:-)

Might have to make it a quarterly thing?