cranebump

Some details: arc relies mostly on stock enemies, with a selected use of 2 new factions. Play tests showed some nice timing of events. I changed my creation procedure by touring the map first. Haven’t yet used random map insertion, which I may at a future date, just to give some variety. All in all, this arc is pretty clean, though I thought the bosses played too easy.

Cranebump presents: "Friends & Lovers." [Arc ID: 26757] A 5-mission vigilante arc for lvls 10-15 Your "mischief" has gotten you tossed in the klink. But fear not. The enigmatic Triistanna Caine of the "special" PPD detachment is willing to make a deal. Investigate the possible reformation of the leaderless Vahzilok in exchange for your freedom. With Doc Vahz in the Zig, how hard could that be?

Cranebump presents: "Friends & Lovers." [Arc ID: 26757] A 5-mission vigilante arc for lvls 10-15 Your "mischief" has gotten you tossed in the klink. But fear not. The enigmatic Triistanna Caine of the "special" PPD detachment is willing to make a deal. Investigate the possible reformation of the leaderless Vahzilok in exchange for your freedom. With Doc Vahz in the Zig, how hard could that be?

You could run through the signature story arcs at max level maybe? Run them blue and redside, get a buncha merits.

Variety, and far and away nice people. No one way to enjoy the game. And you can pretend to be a super hero. I like that...

Had a ton of alts, but have pared down. I have several with the same prefix (Acro-), but with different powersets. Three of them are from the same “family.” One of them was a toon I leveled to15 quickly to test AE story arcs. Trying to keep my alt numbers down, but will probably create a family of archers once again, using various secondaries. No reason.i just like bows.

I have one person on ignore. They tried forming a team of 8 to run PI mishes 10 mins before an update shutdown. When I mentioned the servers were going down pretty quick on team chat, they replied WHAT IS THIS YOU SPEAK OF? TELL ME! Thought at first they were trying to be funny. But they kept typing in ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME, BECAUSE THEY ALWAYS USE IT. When I made a request for them to consider doing otherwise, replied I DONT CARE ABOUR UR LIFE. Quit the team, put them on ignore. If not for the UR LIFE part, probably would’ve just bailed and left it alone. But, if this is how they wish to portray themselves, it’s not someone I need to be around. It’s like Maya Angelou says. When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. Other than that, I haven’t ignored anyone. I just shut off the General tab in my main feed. I’d like to ignore the bubbles of people who are running on our team, but are constantly chatting on other channels talking “build-babble” while we’re in mish, but that’s fairly common it seems.

Standardized the Skullion costumes more Balanced encounters Ran multiple tests with on level toons, including a squishy corruptor Still on the fence about certain maps, but at some point, you have to leave things be.

I don't have "street" mishes, per se, but the first 2 arcs of "Oridinary People" are set in KR, and focus on a Hellions/Skull "plot." The final arc is still under construction (last 2 mishes are pretty tough). It caps at 20, and has been playtested with a tank, a scrapper, and a corrupter.

Playthrough of Arc #2 with a lvl 16 Corrupter,Archery/Poison/Experimentation. Breezy, esp, since I can heal allies. Faceplanted vs. Operative Demare, but Demare is not a mission objective. Will likely change destruction of last object to a long-click glowie instead. Demare is tough, even with allies, so may not need reinforcements for him (even though the spawn mob is easy). Arc #3 with same toon plays easy through mishes 1-3. Still have to work on Mish 4 and final boss battle before republishing. On the whole, looks like it will be moderate enough for toons 15-20. So far...

Thanks, appreciate it. i unpublished Arc 3 after play through. Need major fixes on last two missions.

Here’s the playthrough with lvl 16 Shield/WM tank Mish #1: Narrative mish. Willie is a bit hard to see, but torch helps. Edits: None Mish #2: First time up, the two front patrols both got me. Rezzed in mish. Went with corner pulls of patrols when I could not bypass. Ambush spawn after Cyrus caused me to retreat to upper floor and wait around corner. Took out last of Skullion crew there, then hard to return to finish off Cyrus’s guards for mish complete. Edits: *Make to where defeat Cyrus is boss only. This should allow a hasty retreat under duress. *Revisited ambush group to ensure it was doable. Changed to Cyrus at ¼ to Cyrus completed, as to allow some lag time, and a delay for player to leave, or attempt to defeat the ambush. Mish #3: Guards conned at 15, so they were actually useful. Still had to do some fancy stepping to drag opponents with me a couple times. Had both guards on ambush, and that saved me pretty much. For the last boss, she got off Gang War before I downed her, so I spent about a minute hacking the Posse down. Edits: *Revisited Ambush setting, but, as it spawns after you get 2nd guard, it is beatable. Had 3 mins left, even after playing “Hack a thug” for 45 seconds. Mish #4: Taunt-pulled, but got too many perps. Retreated to exit, took a beating and rezzed. Stupid Darkflame pet was still around, and they all came again, so exited normally, rested, then went back in. They were STILL at door, so exited again, bought insps. Popped 9 of then, before damaging boss enough for her to flee, but by then the minions killed me. So, first issue is a logjam at front of map, due to spawns. Went back in, she’s STILL there, with her Umbra beast out. I free Kendricks and he helps me take her down. Once past the door, the mish is pretty easy. Ambush is 4 Initiates. I’ve learned to target Pacifiers and Perforators first. I collect the glowies and exit, leaving many spawns behind. Edits: *Left as is. Just because I faceplanted and had to run doesn’t mean it’s not doable. Mish #5: I start at the top, free an Ally, find 2 crates, and the truck. I level up in the middle of the ambush battle. PPD swarms in, but, by then I’d taken everything out. Now I have a swarm of cops with me. They end up hunting perps, and I lose most of them. Easily take down the two bosses with about 4 mins to spare. And this with normal speed, no sprint toggle. Edits: None. The arc is doable at lvl 15-17, with a tank, at least. It would require some doing with something like an MM. My tank had low damage output, so it was a slog. High dmg output might melt some groups before they engage. I am hoping the player analyzes the opposition to determine priority targets. Not everything should be a plow through (like a lot of TF/mishes are). Since it’s AE, I assume players are looking for something different here. I think the changes I’ve done make it dicey, at times, but manageable. There are so many variables, though. Some toons might just cruise through. In that case, I am hoping story works. Next up: visiting Arc 3. I suspect there’ll be some issues (there always are).:-)

Tested Arc #2. Results and changes: Played Arc 2: Hope & Bullets using a lvl 15 War Mace/Shield tank Mish #1: Played through multiple times. Kept mostly as is, but am considering dropping OZ, and spawning the last ambush on getting database. There’s no reason Oz is there (or shouldn’t be as a spawn). Considering giving Willie pistols, so player has a minor ally, but overall the mish is doable as is. You can’t bumrush everything on the map, however, depending on archetype. Had to play strategically, to include a retreat, with a taunt to drag away a Darkflame from another group. I’d say a stalker would breeze this mish. Edits: *Added dialogue to Oz to make his appearance a reaction to the player’s incursion. *Gave Willie Pistols, and made her an Ally. Mish #2: Levelled to 16 between mishes. Played a couple times, then made the following changes: Playthrough: it's too damned hard, due to cluttered map. Edits: *Made Gatling and Sanders plain ol’ bosses *Set map to “empty” *Removed one of the destructible objects Result: I still get a boss spawn in front, either Gatling or Sanders. Sanders is the tougher of the two. He spawned yello (LT), but summoned ambush, and it got dicey. Had to retreat to pull leftover minions. The Soothers and Pacifiers make things tough with bubbles and heals. Gatling would’ve been easier, but when I corner-taunted, I pulled the second patrol. Glowies ALL spawned in the same room, which was great. Operative Dessose appeared in the same area, but was not logjammed, so I recovered him, and used him to take down Gatling/final room. The first time it’s worked out that way. Overall: mish is doable. The ambush is still difficult. You can’t just charge in, if patrols are active. Map is set to empty outside that, so player has to be selective. I’d bring Insps along. Mish #3: The way this mish goes depends on the wandering patrol. I aggroed them, and they pulled Noira. So I ran back to entrance. Surviving patrol followed, but Noira turned back around. I took them out, then went back down, took her out. Noira is not a mission objective, and will run at 25% or less health. She’s not tough alone, but, with tight quarters down below (Univ library map), you might need a pull if you’re playing a melee toon, like I was. Boss was low damage/whiffed some, but has good defense, so I concentrated on minions first. Had to use a green insp, just to be safe. Spawn points of objects is perfect. Boss spawn ended up being below, instead of at door, but it worked out. Edits: None Mish #4: This one’s pretty easy, if you take the allies along. Glogre moves so slow that I ended up walking most of the map until it was 95% cleared. Sullivan is hard to find, so I replaced the collection object. Spent a lot of time looking for her, but found her with over 10 mins to spare. Dunno why. When Steve G spawned, had a yellow nav that led me to him (yay!). But the nav for Larry was WAAAY off. Steve is easy, particularly with allies. For Larry, I needed both Glogre and Acrobattle. I didn’t find Whip until later. Had wiped out his guards, but he was behind a wall. If you use all 3, the entire mission should be a breeze. None are required, however. Whip and Acrobattle can keep up with faster movers, but Glogre cannot. No nav for Sullivan, which sucks. I didn’t clear the whole map, though, so that may be why. Of note: there are several PPD spawns that roam around and kill stuff, which is sorta nice, I guess. They won’t follow, but they’re there. Adjustments after playthrough: *Set all Ally guard groups to “Empty.” Changed Sullivan collection object. Get rid of “The Whole Gang” enemy group, which was the original group for the mish. Gave Overseer a different guard group to presage what’s in Arc #3. Changed Glogre to “aggressive” so he’d be more active. On the whole: it’s more balanced, and all doable by a lvl 15. My toon has multiple slots that weren’t even enhanced. The one’s I had enhanced were all at 15. The Mutant Hacker is an interesting baddie. Then they die, they rez, with a stun effect. There aren’t many, but it’s quite the surprise. Even effects the boss allies. On the whole, the arc should now be playable enough for players to enjoy the story (hopefully).

Changes to arc 2: Mission #1: *Can exit immediately when Oz is killed, or stay to fight ambush (ambush is used to introduce Skullion Elites enemy group) *Ambushes: either reduced in number (sometimes to 0 or lowered in settings, or option to run before they get there by exiting. *Many powersets re-selected for enemies. RIGHT NOW: Working on the logjam in the middle of Arc2-2. Starting by dropping one of the destructible objects. Kicking Steve Gatling's a** (hopefully). Using a lower-level toon this time.

I think the best fix for the lab mish is 0 ambushes, which would make sense, since it’s a raid by the hero. The remaining missions are much simpler. Probably needs a set to “empty” (which I thought had done) to prevent that logjam on the bridge in the middle. Operative Desosse spawns there every time, as does one of the filing cabinets, so you get two groups piled on each other. So, delete a file cabinet would help, and check ambush settings, because I thought I had fixed that.

I did nerf Steve Gatling, but he was still tough.

Yeah, that lab mission...I fiddled with that one a lot. Had to do some old fashioned pulling. Change s the arachnids ally to a better version, and he got eaten. Have to revisit the custom enemies and check ambushes again. Thought I’d removed them.

NOTE: arc is temporarily down for edits and additional play test. I think of the arcs I've basically finished, this one is best so far: #2: Hope and Bullets (Heroic lvls 15-20) [Arc ID: 24554] @cranebump The “Skullion” threat turns out to be just the beginning. The “Constellation” is still missing, and now, it seems the diamond thieves are after more than diamonds. Or rather, their overseers are. Call themselves “The Gatling Gang,” cowboys with high tech weaponry. Stymied in his investigation by Powers Division, Joe Freitag looks into it himself, accompanied off the books by a brilliant young cadet, Willie Sullivan. Of course, they stumble right into trouble, which causes Pep Becktrees to give you a call to bail them out. In doing so, however, you get pulled right back in. Seems you’re not the only interested party, either. Arachnos has their eye on the situation. Something called, “Project Orion.” Arachnos. “Skullions.” The Gatlings. And Project Orion. All in a week’s work for you. But for others, the consequences are more tragic. *It's can be challenging, depending on placement*

Did a ton of work on Arcs 1 & 2 today. The placement of bosses/patrols can be dicey. I have limited the patrol numbers, and went with more consistent mixes of bad guys (Skullion Initiates, A Lab Crew, Skullion Elites, and The Gatling Gang). Sometimes I ran right through, other times, it was damned hard. I changed the label to Challenging, because it's likely to be that way, as currently constituted. Added more verbiage about Willie Sullivan throughout, to knit the 2 arcs together. I'll be working on #3 next time. Need a brain break.

(12) Mission #3:Tweaked patrol numbers and ambush spawn. Plan to buff the guards a bit (maybe). (13) Mission #4: Removed all patrols. (14) Mish #4: Replace Accept text: "Stop the thieves!" with "What do you need me to do?" (15): Mish #5: Change "Accept" to "I'm the hell ready." (16) Mish #5: No longer Defeat All; editing Skullion Boat crew to eliminate Hats" (17) PPD arrives between Truck ambushes.

EDITS to Arc #1: (1) Clarified some of the text, so that the role of the Cullinan and the Constellation are clear. (2) Added info on foes. (3) Simplified the enemy group. Now using "Skullion Initiates." (4) Reduced some patrols. Cleaned up patrol dialogue. (5) No longer have to exit map manually on mish 4. (6) Removed "Defeat All" from Mish 5. Added Boss spawns, and increased support from Allies (especially during Truck encounter). (7) Did some clue reduction, and added Clue numbers in the form of mish-clue (i.e., clue 1 from mish one should be marked "M1-1"). (8) Tweaked a few power selections on bad guys. (9) Name change "Darkfemme" to "Darkflame." I didn't think you could use the same name, but you can. I had wanted a female version of the Darkflame toon originally (which was the reason for the original name). (10) Changed lvl bandwidth to 15-20 for every mission. (11) Highlighted mission objectives within the intro text. No changes to basic Skullion Initiate costumes. They're supposed to be slightly more powerful versions of the original groups. The orange skull on the T-shirts represents the blending of the two. Enemies who don't look like Skullions are either mercenaries, or Skullions given advanced weaponry and training. Remember: this is the opening arc to a longer story. Seeds are planted here that return later on. A bit ambitious for a first real attempt at this. Hoping it will all eventually work.

“Demon vampire succubus...” that was pretty funny.:-) Thanks for the feedback on the diff. I was running tests with toons at the level cap, plus I had a scrapper. Most of the time it ran pretty easy, though the multiple ambushes were sometimes a challenge. Your experiences with an MM are therefore really valuable. Some commentary: 1) There’s supposed to be a segue from the dream of Willie Sullivan to your memory of her death, which begins with mission 2. This makes this arc, plus the 2 that follow, all about how she died, and what you did to redeem the situation. I’m hopIng the fact that it’s a memory didn’t get lost, but maybe it did. I’ll have to read it yet again. 3) Prince Nandelu probably needs a bio. He’s from “Kawanda” who supplies vibranium. The diamond, the Cullinan, is his heirloom. When you bash the truck later on, you end up finding the diamond on the truck. This averts a diplomatic dustup by showing the PPD (thanks to you) is actually competent. Of course, if that got lost, I need to fix it. 4) I don’t remember why it has a manual exit. I’ll have to look. 5) Mission should’ve ended without freeing anyone. I may just need to turn off the “required” switch. There should’ve been a few allies to help with this mish. Originally there were 5, but that seemed excessive. I think I dropped it to 2-3 recently. The allies are also good at spotting bad guys the player might miss. That was the idea anyway, considering that dry dock map. In some ways, I’m glad the mishes are hard because the game outside AE often feels like it has training wheels on it these days. On the other hand, a mass of face planting is just no bueno. Considering the level bandwidth, and the fact that AE is primarily a solo experience, I think nerfing the ambushes, either in number or in diff is likely going to be a “must fix.” I’m hoping the arcs get better as the story goes on. That said, I’m guessing I might end up having to do some major revisions in the end. As someone who writes a lot, I know it’s the editing that makes things work. So feedback like yours is very helpful. Thanks for taking the time to write a comprehensive review. Much appreciated.

That’s a good idea. I tried the basic Hellion type outfit with the Masher, and a couple others, but didn’t really consider the rest. That would show some augmentation, while retaining their basic identity. Great suggestion. It refocuses on the idea that the gangs are deadlier not so much because of the tech, but because of coordination and leadership (which allows greater rationalization of the MM characters as Lts and Bosses). Also homogenizes the look, which probably will be visually more appealing. I like it! On adding more tech: the Skullions get supplanted in Arc 2 by the Gatling Gang. So, any gain would be small, I think, because the arcs follow each other closely in time. But, as above indicates, a makeover would probably add some overall coherence to the arc. One thing I did after Arc 1: created the bad guy rosters first, so I coulda pick and choose for patrols and such. Sounds like I need to make another pass at that, as well.

Thanks so much for the constructive feedback. I’ll respond to a few things, just to give a sense of what I was going for. The first mission map is echoed in the very last mission of the 3-arc story. I agree it does not work as welll as a stand-alone. It does work if you play all 3 missions. It was the very last thing I added, after designing all three missions. Creatively, it works, but only if you play all 3. That’s a good and bad thing. I think it probably needs to be woven into the basic story of each arc to work optimally. Patrol dialogue: I’ll fix this. Just got lazy, and didn’t want to place each patrol individually. I’ll have to do this in other arcs, too. Skullions: you make a good point in that they aren’t a very accurate hybrid. I think some of the dark/flame toons are, but I assume you mean the mercenary looking ones. I think that’s a valid point, though I was also trying to mix powersets to broaden the challenges. As for costumes, I wanted it to appear they’d gotten advanced training. The suspicion that there’s a hand pulling the strings is inherent in that. Of course, if someone doesn’t play through, then I may have wasted the design. Glad you liked the X-Tactics toons. When they drop gang war, it makes for a fun combat. Anyway, I’ll reconsider the hybrid idea, or find some better explanation. Clues: thanks for the tip. I kept seeing them out of order when I playtested, not realizing that they drop according to the mission goals list. I agree that fewer and more robust clues would be better. The Constellation: that’s a MAJOR error on my part. It’s inherent in all 3 arcs. I’ll have to fix that. I plan to give all the mission text another pass, this time putting it all on a doc where I can see everything. I think this being my first shot at authoring since reboot, I may have gone overboard on text. Loss of clarity is a huge thing. Being clear is much more important than being “fancy.” So, definitely another pass on all that. Now that it’s set for a bit, I can look at it again with clear eyes. Thanks for taking the time to run the mission, and to provide the feedback. Let me know if you continue through. I appreciate it very much.

Deleted. I have removed arcs temporarily to tweak.