cranebump

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).:-)

Wait-this was not a Nemesis plot?:-)

Best bet is to dilute Ripplesurge in a big glass with a large ice cube, then spritz it with...wait, it's not a brand of alcohol?

My favorite part of this was that the complaint about the thumbs down received a few thumbs down.:-)

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 :-)