Ankylosaur

Made a little overhaul to my lore-inspired Virtea mob that appears in 1.2. This sea-dwelling group that are related to the Coralax have had a few updates over the years as powers keep coming out on homecoming. Marine Affinity is the latest to be added to their arsenal. But in the end, it makes for a nice group with a lot of powers not found in the core game - Melee toons that are war mace or titan weapons (coralax clubs/hammers) with Bio Armor (like they are using crab carapaces as armor) - And some ranged toons with water blast and now marine affinity. - Still have some sonic toons in here too, but one is now sonic/music control So nice to be able to add some variety from what is found in game to make a unique mob

Just a small note to clairify why the All That Glitters lineup no longer looks like this in AE. Short version: These four arcs were replaced with one arc, tightening the story, and taking from 12 arcs to 9. Specifically, after Engineria's playthrough it was clear it was way too long and I tightened up this section significantly. Removed 3.2 and 4.1 entirely Originally Glitters was supposed to be 9 arcs - but after a poor initial ending, I wrote several more to carve a path to a new ending. Really though, as demonstrated by the fix - it could easily fit in 9. Cut, cut, cut... A few tidbits did get incorporated into what remained - some even moving upstream in the story - mostly into 2.3. The core of these two arcs were strong though, and had some connected contacts in The Doctor and Number 6. I re-purposed them with a different story in my "Monkey" series (Almost called All That Gleeps 🙂 ) 3.2 got some different players and a new story. This allowed me to also cover the one Praetorian group that made it to Prime that does not appear in my other arcs: The Syndicate The setting of the isles also did not gel super well with the progression of the Gold Brickers expanding into hazard zones in Paragon Was mainly in the isles to involve the wyvern contact and story there - and Wyvern going after the syndicate works just as well. 4.1 touches on the Council and the Nictus after the Fall of Striga, (in Councilvania! 🙂 ) but I cover that in more detail now in All That Glints (Council/Awakened) and All That Glows (5th Column/Nictus). So it was not that important to the All That Glitters story and had a fun Monkey angle I could work in instead. This originally continued the theme of the Gold Brickers moving into hazard zones and brought Vanguard in for the Praetorian connection. But in the end the GB were barely in RWZ, and my "Kingston Heights" zone they rebuilt next to Khalisti became more important. Also this story did not really revolve around them, but more the Rikti Freakshow, UPA, and the Council, so felt a bit tangential. Combined 3.3 and 4.2 Realized there was some overlap and maybe a-little-too-slow reveal of info. A few defining moments were in those two arcs though, so I combined them into one action-packed one - still called Calamity in Kalisti Wharf.

no such thing as unlimited spawns - each map has a limit

Thanks so much for your kind words! Enjoyed your play-through! A few more tidbits for you...

Well - because of the extended pause in the review - I have come back and read Engineeria's latest installment through a few times now. Love seeing it all through her eyes. Great pics and a real treat seeing her unfold the story as she explores it. I laughed, I cried, I made a note to self to go to Aruba too. 🙂

So I finished the third one - finally. The series is definitely still in its nascent v1, (meaning I bet there are still a few typos out there and maybe the story still needs some tightening) but it is complete if anyone is looking for something new, and even better, if you have a Goldside toon looking for something to do after completing all of Night Ward. As usual, it went in a few unexpected directions from initial ideas, but again, attempts to latch onto unused hooks from the end of Praetoria, the related follow-up in Dark Astoria, and my own little Anky-verse with Neo Tokyo playing a role. Even a small follow-up to All that Glitters explaining some fallout from what went down in Grandville and another Recluse LT shake-up. (It has GOT to be hard to stay a trusted member of his circle.) Always appreciate early players being generous with feedback and stars in these fledgling stages. Will definitely continue to evolve it based on feedback. (A little worried I went a bit Clue crazy in M1 for example.) Hope you enjoy!

Exciting to the start of Engineeria's journey here! So great to see her uncover the plot! Little design tidbits since you have finished - spoliers if you have not... ?

Well - not sure its a rule, but basically, if you want to use that custom boss - you have to choose thier standard version from the standard mob, as a boss - then recolor them, and change their bio again. Just the way it works for some reason.

Fingers crossed that Ninjas in the wind is still on the list. 🙂

I have authored several large missions with lots of custom characters and can open them locally. However, after publishing they time out when trying to open them and I disconnect if they are too large. I think somewhere around 42 or 43% file size is my practical limit - and sometimes doing things like opening in a quiet zone while in the AE authoring room with a low level toon makes the difference - no idea specifically why. I have some published missions that open some of the time and some that just don't and I can't edit without unpublishing and republishing. (My largest single mob was Playing Cards for Alice in Wonderland, but that was grouped with several other custom groups so no idea how many it was overall.) Just a reminder though that I think the current file limit is about 4 times the old file limit on live I think - so its not like this is a degraded experience from the OG - still about twice as nice.

Pretty sure that bug is unique to the Praetorian maps. I encountered that one ages ago myself.

Brought the Diviners back in to the first one with other "sisters" who chose to remain behind and did not travel to Dark Astoria with Diabolique and the Talons. Tweaked the second one, and feeling fairly good about it, though I may make a few refinements after I finish the third. Came up with a much stronger (and fun) final mission which tees up the third. Been noodling on the third one and finally have some strong plot points. Oddly it took me to Warburg, but it gives me a chance to explore Primal Earth in an interesting way. Ultimately, it turns the page on the All That Glitters series and lets me explore what has happened on Primal Earth after several of the "All That" series changed the nature of things redside. Just like in the All That series where at some point in each you travel to Praetoria, now that you start in Praetoria, you will end up traveling to Prime. But this trilogy is standalone from "All That G." It basically uses some of what happened there as backstory for a Goldside character to get introduced to (my version) of Primal Earth from a Goldside perspective.

I think it could be interesting to have "Window Dressing" / "non-clickable" objects, leveraging the existing map mechanics. There are a number of small elements in the Super Group editor that could fit within existing maps and bring variety to the maps so the same map with some items included could feel different. Maps often support MANY MANY walls and floor items. These non-clickable items could be applied to those map spots. Examples Add floor lamps in an office - say 30 in any location Add wall art, such as the posters to the main back room of a villain hunting the CoH heroes Add logos/signs of mobs - wish there were a few Crey logos I could throw on the walls for a tech lab map for example. Add objects related to mobs - many of the magic objects feel like CoT - put them in a warehouse or regular cave to make it feel like a CoT spot without it needing to be a CoT map I'm presuming that for the devs, choosing from among 3D objects that already exist and can generally fit in the space allotted to glowies, and making them available as "non-clickable" is somehow easier than just making them clickable. I know I have sometimes populated maps with 40 duplicate clickable crates just for some window dressing, but really they do not need to be glowies at all.

Demo Record info: https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Demo_Recording

No idea - that's one of the "issues" I meant. Maybe they are an AV, set to fight defensively, but have no attacks?