cranebump

Sure, I'll bite. Lemme figure out what to run. With nothing but drops, I'm gonna want something that gives me a movement boost as an inherent. I like tah move it, move it, after all.:-) Went with all the KB: Nrgy/Nrgy Blastage, like my first real toon back in the day. We who are about to faceplant give you a hearty wave. (guess I don't care about inherent travel as much as I thought)

Ran this puppy with my AE-only toon. Had fun with it! Full review and comments are in the Josh Jones arc.

You (didn't) ask for it! It's finally here! The Return of Joshua “I’m a Badass” (sorta, or maybe not) Jones! Eee-hee-hee! He’s back folks. And ready for some lowbie action! ‘Cause he’s a lowbie! Yeah...and stuff. Today’s selection: As opposed to Snakes on a mutha****in’ plane. I dig. Our contact: LB Agent Hahn: Pointy hat - check. Appropriate color scheme - check. Purple face - che...wait a minute. You got any cream for that, man? M1: Someone with real power? Hang on, lemme see if Pos it available. Pretty sure, I...oh...you mean me…{heh} My task: take down the snake in charge. Then BECOME the snake in charge!...or not? Upon entry - echoes of gunfire! My kind of mish! Guess why? Ding! You win. So naturally I start with fists...derrrr… You got it, sweet cheeks! Er...sir… Ssssorry to hear that. Perhapsssss I can assssissst… Okay, when I said “assssissst” I didn’t know it meant ASSSSSSISSSSST! (dat’s a lotta dudes) Thankfully I’ve got help. Check out the LB dance moves! I’m inspired as all get out! Hmmm...better be on the look out for the upgrade… “Business Casual Man.” Or maybe… ...but, of course… NOTE: The captors are named. Interesting touch. Some have names like “Transe” and “Dase.” Josh hates big words! And words where S’s are used for other letters! Shoot them!:-) So, I lose one of my LB pards (the lovely lady). End up facing off against more captors, with different types of captives. Gotta say, all that poison and stuff hurts! I save someone named Devon Ophir, which Josh would know is a lot like ophidian - if he hadn’t dropped out of 5th grade. Find another captive, Arun Neelam. Then I get this weird map glitch (??): I’ve been transported! To the land of milk and...never mind...more snakes. End up taking on Mesmer (in snake, Messssss [I’ll suck out your mind, bro!] merrrr. My male LB companion survives, obviously due to his entitled status. End clue sez: Well, okay, but I DID figure that out on my own. I’m SMART! I can do things! Speaking of: End clue matches the mish clue. Unless there’s a reason to differentiate (later on maybe), I don’t think we need C1-1. MISH 2: Now off to find “hard to catch - easy to bribe” Mongoose (nice touch). We get dropped into Mercy for this one. I run straight into law enforcement. Hey...that’s one half MY line, bro… So you can count...well done. Hey - any openings in Longbow? I think I might qualify. MISH 3: Jesus, Hahn, do I have to do EVERYTHING? Mainly a gather info mish, but: What am I supposed to do with the Base Leader? Since you ain’t sayin’, I choose the tango! These things: Sooo glad they don’t hatch in AE. Then again, maybe they do. And they’re mixed with spider eggs! (nor really, but see that dude back there? BOO!) At this point, I’m relieved to see Arachnos, becaese (1) they don’t spew nasty poison, and (2) they don’t self heal right as I get them down to a sliver of health. I know you said, “Capture” snake eggs, but it’s so much easier if I just break them, ‘k? Well this can’t be good… Hmmm...repurposing snakes as power cables. INSSSIDIOUSSSS! Under the heading “happy accident:” I'll take care of this. You just dangle there. Countered by “not quite so happy accident:” Seriously...a fence? All done! NOTE: Excellent placement of spawns. Everything was right there in one room. Found a typo: “Brought” Clues say an Arachnos Flyer involved. HURRAH! I’ve been needing some new wheels! Or...wings...whatevs… Well, when you’re as dumb as Josh, it has some advantages.:-) MISH 4: Well...since you ASKED. But I want Milky Ways. The special kinds, from holidays and such. Get with it! NOTE: I like the “Accept” texts (I will. I can.) Make me feel all businesslike and shit. Okay, NOBODY invited Ghost Widow. Hmmmm now where could that flight log BE…? 🙂 Log spawned on the first flyer I found. Easy peazy. Or rather, peassssssssy. MISH 5: Wha…? Well, why didn’t we START here, Hahn! Okay, I’ve had this formatting error happen to me before, too: You actually have to type out the word “percent,” or you’ll get this (which I’m calling perssssssssssent, for obvious reasons):-) Entry popup tells me I’m in a snake cave. Good thing, ‘cause I thought this was Barbados.:-) This sure looks like a pile of not active glowies. Now that I figured out I had my screen settings on dim, I should be able to see them better (derrrrrrrrr[x2]). Found Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, and we’re off! ‘Goose and I take down “the greatest of all snakes” before ambush hits. Then we’re off to get some shawarma. SUMMARY: A nice addition to the Snakes catalogue. Fits in well in CoV, with enemy/location selections. My lowbie was appropriately challenged. Strengths: Strong spawn placement. Use of custom names for snake captors. Succinct Accept text (I can. I will. I must. I...m AWESOME). Only found one measly typo (and one big formatting thing). Easy fixes. Fast paced. Great use of the original snake maps. Tweaks: The above typos/formatting. Not much personality to the contact (unless being super obvious and direct is a personality trait). No surprises anywhere, but, at this level, most surprises are nasty, so… MISH 5 title: I'm not sure how the title fits. Maybe I missed the obvious. It IS Josh, you know. TO THINK ABOUT: Maybe some indication of why I was immune to snake control, and how that could be harvested by LB as an antidote. But that may be a follow up arc? Play if: You want to revisit the Snakies, but with a twist. Don’t play if: Snakes...why did it have to be snakes? ANNNNND...Josh made it to Level 8! BOOYAH, BEEYOATCHERINOS! Snakefully Yours, Crane

Draft complete! Definitely in need of testing. INITIAL NOTES: Ran with a L15 Scrapper. It's got some tough spots. Watch out for the "Houdinis." End Boss is tough, but you have help. I plan on running it with some of my more tricked out toons today. Could really use a team run (or several, actually) Also planning on running some of other peeps arcs, now that I can take a break from this. Thanks in advance, Crane

I posited that the storm did come, the heroes were losing, and ended up shunting 7 years of war into a “time strip” called the Mobius. I then scripted a 10-arc AE metastory to take the player through it (which one player actually played). Then I pulled it all down to recompose it. Shorter this time...:-)

Update on part 2: Plot outline done. Custom critter groups done. Trying to do this in 4 parts, rather than 5 (making it closer to Pos2). We'll see if I can cram all this in, since 2 is something of a "reveal" arc. Thinking about redoing the rescue mish for Welch in #1, above. Would make more sense if he didn't follow the player and gun down loyal citizens.:-)

Aren’t we splitting hairs here? I mean, I’m basically doing the same thing as the OP when I post a review (and what is the Dojo about, if not this same process?) i would also argue that a private critique might be preferable to a public review, especially if there are major issues. If it’s private, then at least my errors are not being publicly advertised.

The system has a star rating and a comments section. Anyone who posts an SFMA arc should expect to hear some sort of commentary (especially if they label it as “looking for feedback”). If it wasn’t a serious attempt at story, the author should’ve responded as such, then changed their arc description to reflect that. Instead, this childish person questioned the reviewer’s “moral compass” then proceeded to bomb them with poison pill ratings and reviews. The writer’s response is therefore pretty surprising, given that context. You indicate here that GG is somehow at fault for offering commentary. But this seems to conveniently overlook the fact that, by postIng their work without a clear disclaimer, the writer is automatically subject to the rating system. Regardless, the author’s subsequent actions are just plain juvenile douche baggery, and should be dealt with in some way.

I'd report the player. Revenge rating is abuse. You have their original reaction, and then their subsequent ratings. Feels like a conduct violation of some kind.

Can anything be done? Nope. The author of that particular arc is thinned-skin and immature. Of course, you point out typos. Then, if you're the author, you fix them. It's free proofreading, for goodness sake. And if there are a ton of them, it's a huge thing, because it detracts from the enjoyment of the story (not to mention, it makes the author look careless and/or incompetent). Bottom line: this person does not want to improve. They just want to be patted on the back. (And I still don't get the "moral compass" comment). P.S. You SURE you don't want to share the Arc ID? 🙂

Greetings. I've been mulling over a villainous TF analogous to Pos1&2, but on the Vill side. For this project, my plan is 2 parts, with lvl ranges commensurate with Pos. I did not go with a standard contact, however. With that in mind, here is the first draft of Part 1: Design/Test Notes: Ran this several times with a L23 Dark/Sonic Blaster on default difficulty. He has Sudden Acceleration KB to KD slotted in 2 powers. The rest are just SO's. Some of the custom minions in gave me minor problems. The synergy is interesting, and could get dicey if there were a lot of them. The Finale End Boss is intentionally tough, since I anticipate teams running this (though it is easily soloable, mishes 1-4). Had to switch from the map I preferred for Mish 4 (Marchand's Office). If fit thematically, but that empty space up top is just a permanent red herring, so I went with a more traditional office setting, and changed some of the dialogue. On "Rescue Welch" mission, I am questioning whether he should just stand there and wait for the player to complete mish after the first rescue attempt. As it is now, he accompanies, and helps spray down "Loyal Citizens." This seems wrong - unless he proves to be a real douche bag in Part 2 (which my ideas for are very global and general, at present). Other than Welch, I intentionally avoided any allies or escorts, since I wanted this to be about the team. Anyhoo, that's it for now. I'll begin scripting on Part 2 immediately. I anticipate having a completed second arc for testing next week (unless I get REALLY productive and fast). Thanks in advance, Crane

Sonoir was available on Everlast for my dark/sonic blaster.

Officially submitting:

Thanks for the run! If you mean mish 3, the arachnos spawns are randomized. I didn’t get a single Fortuna in any of the test runs (did get Huntsmen, though). Sorry, but that’s out of my control.

True - 12-year olds are people, too darnit!:-)

Well, there goes my dream of running my Sonic/Storm, Opera WIndfury.

Roter Schadel? Or maybe Rotergeist (red ghost)? Or maybe a combo of the various IDs, like Malik Schmidt.

EMP arrow. Twip. BZZZZZZT! (Drool, sway)

NOTES; Tested with an Exemp'ed L18 Beam/Traps. No issues. Lore wise, this arc takes place before prior to formation of Outcasts (which is a partial explanation for its low level range). Because it's so low level, I kept maps small, and mobs pretty simple. I like the story. Not sure how much I like the missions. They seem a bit...plain... Thanks in advance, Crane

I worked on scripting for additional AE arcs.:-)

Fighting an AV by oneself. And since I’m playing characters rather than testing builds I’ll use whatever it takes not to get stomped.:-)

Couple shouts out to @Darmian and @Kyksie. These guys always run my AE arcs and provide valuable feedback (esp. Darm, the lore king, from whom no pesky typo escapes notice!):-)

I should have something for you fairly soon. Thanks for sponsoring!

I guess what I’m trying to say is to capture the spirit of Mr. Fantastic. There is no way you can truly simulate the powers he has, so don’t try. Just have echoes of who he is that make your tribute obvious. In Astro City, Kurt Busiek doesn’t have a straight Fantastic Four, but he plays on the idea of them with the Furst Family. He doesn’t have Spider Man, but sort of tangentially pays tribute via Jack in the Box. No Superman, but a Samaritan. It will be clear to whom you’re paying tribute in the way the character is written, and what his role is. Plus you have 3 of the 4 pretty directly copied, so...everyone’s gonna know. Long story short: my character will essentially be Reed Richards, but he’ll have to use what the engine provides. Since I’m constrained by that, there’s no reason for me to worry about being accurate. I’m designing something with a faint silhouette of the real thing. In the end, that might actually make my final concept more interesting (and usable, within the constraints of AE).

I would make “Mr. Fantastic” a master mind. Bots. I might not even use him as an NPC, but rather as the main story contact. His main “super” is his genius and problem solving capacity. he would be the one holding the team together at HQ.