cranebump

Full team for Synapse!

Okay, looks like I can get out of her at a reasonable hour. I'll see everyone at 8!

That's awesome! Hopefully, I'll be there at 8. When I know for sure, I'll contact ya.

Well...I most likely ain't gonna make the Synapse run. Our private school is doing a virtual parent weekend. After conferences, there are mandatory evening activities that I don't think I can (sneak) get out of. So, if I'm not there promptly at 8 pm EST, just go on without me. Earliest I could actually get on (if things ran to the bitter end), is 9 pm EST (that takes into account the drive home, plus getting situated (I ain't wearin' the monkey suit for CoH--clashes with the spandex). So, doesn't look great, atm. Hoping to be there 8 sharp (fingers crossed), but I wouldn't count on it.

I can do: Friday Jan 15 at 7 PM Eastern - ineffablebob

Just pinged lvl. 30, trained, and hoofed on over to: Cya next week, kemosabes (I fervently hope):-) P.S. Is Synapse smirking at me?

Friday (evening only) or Saturday (any time, if I know ahead of time). Sunday (morning/day only). usually THU is my night, but not next week.

Already on it.:-) After running with the Classics, my next 2 characters have been running “on their own merits.” I plan to run these guys without crafting or purchasing IO’s. Should be fine for solo and non-incarnate stuff.

Hey, Classicos! We are up and running! Come join Medic and Classic and El Crane-o! Gettin' our freak(s) on

I'll be on this evening around 5:30 pm US-EST, if anyone's up for running some mishes.

Thtat's what I've been doing, and plan to do in the future. But it'd be nice not to have to make yet another account, especially while it seems some requests are granted, and others are ignored. Anyway, c'est la vie. Is what it is.

Ah. Well good for you. I asked for slots and get ignored.

Also seems like aggressive NPCs are better at following for some reason (though they will go out and kick booty on their own). I haven't seen allies hit and run like you've described. If they're set to follow for entire mission, they shouldn't be going anywhere, once you have them. You also have the option of running away from them, if it's not an escort. Once they get lost, they'll just stand there until/unless you come back for them. That can keep them out of your hair, if you don't want them.

We have unlimited slots?

If I’m on, I’ll run it. My usual night is THU.

Thanks for giving it a run. For the record, I ran it with a L32 tank with IOS. Like you, I had to pop Insps for some parts of it. I ended up doing minor nerfs on the three end bosses (each of whom is connected to previous arcs the character has run, if players run the whole meta-arc, which is a tall order). I would agree with your assessment that players who prefer story will appreciate it (especially since there are plenty of cookie cutter arcs they can breeze through). You play to your strengths. Mine’s narrative and metaplot. Because of that, jamming in the story given MA’s limitation requires me to make certain concessions. Which leads me to my main disagreement with you about mission #1. You talk about “time wasters” a lot in your reviews (as if there’s a specific number of objectives allowed?). And, while I won’t defend someone plopping in 12 glowie# where 3 will do (guilty), some choices we might make are driven by what pushes the story along. More simply, we have to use what the MA gives us. For example, in the first mission, above, each early glowie is followed by a clue drop so that I can include dialogue and information for the player. If the damned clue box were bigger, or I could spawn text on screen in a substantive way, I’d use fewer of these. But, it’s not, so I have to extend the narrative over multiple blocks. The number of objectives is determined by plot (one of them adds the Dagon spawns, which are sent by the BB to stop the player). As for “running back and forth,” most of the glowies are on the lower level of the map, with the bosses spawning on the middle level. Well, usually. If I could sticky things in their places, I would. MA doesn’t allow me to do that. It took many runs just to get things where they are now. Wish I had more control over that, but I don’t. Well, not much. In short, I attempted to group these in the same map “regions” (upper, middle, lower). I was limited to spawn points, because (if I recall correctly), FL Echo doesn’t have wall spawns, so, I’m sharing floor space with NPCs. I ran that mish a LOT. Sometimes it spawned like a dream (albeit you go from back to front after grabbing Angevin). Even when it didn’t, finding stuff was pretty easy. Map isn’t that big, really. Overall, I feel your assessment is fair, as to what kind of players would want to play it. Typically, there’s not much evaluation of the narrative, which is on par for your style (which I think makes my arcs suffer in these reviews, because my strong point is narrative—substance over style, for good/ill). Even so, thanks for taking the time. Twice. That’s a big commitment, because it is not a short arc. As for follow up, Arc is still in test mode. Instead of a tank, I’ll try a squishy to test bosses again. It should be doable, after all. Appreciate the time and the review, Crane

Feels like home

Messed up on original posts (wrong thread). Fixed. Derrrrrr...

For the record it was a Tony Lama. Snakeskin. And we filled it with champagne. I can see my house from here! (hate it when work calls...)

The Gang, +1 Epic run. Freaks never knew what hit 'em. Council neither. And...all those other guys we mezzed, and capped, and blasted, and face-kicked and such...(if i'd-a known I could mni-tank with support like that, I'd taken taunt or something).:-)

Just realized I posted to wrong thread. Moving material

I wrote an arc with amalgam "spirits" of heroes that perished at FL. Used the randomizer to create various minions. But AE has its favs, so it kept spawning the weird cowhead thing (Thugs/DP). I think designers who've worked on this have kept things fairly uniform, because, really, there isn't much to work with lore wise (except all the Kheldians have been devoured). Course, I never had to develop Batt, since it was buried in the backstory (that's my get around for not knowing every scrap of game lore--I write around it).:-)

Wrong thread. Moved.

Mispost. Moved

One of the lore nuggets (can't remember the Dev said it) was that Batt was going to look like amalgam humanoids. Like they pulled elements from everywhere and smusched them together