Ankylosaur

Going to put in some design notes here soon - spoilers though, and it all kind of presumes you played it before or read the thread linked above.. {coming soon}

So after a few years hiatus, I started working on an update to a story I pulled down ages ago: I always liked the bones of it, but there were a few things lacking to me. I wanted to use "space" maps and aliens, but that meant two very similar asteroids, and no spaceships at the time. I wanted to use both Shivan types, but that meant some level changes, and the reasons were thin. I wanted to use "new stuff," like maps, and powers, and those are not new anymore - e.g. a Khalisti office is hardly novel and was a bit shoehorned in fit the space alien theme. I did not give great motivation to the player - some of the missions were sort of handed out, without a player really discovering the reason to pursue the next one on their own. I tried to follow the AMA Lore too much, even though it did not work super well and the finale kind of sprung a bit out of nowhere I later realized, in any telling of the Battalion, Dillo should probably play a role. So, now, I give you a massively rebuilt arc, much on the original theme, but bigger, better (I hope), and more powerful than before. The Coming Storm: Menders' Game. Arc ID 69684 I am sure there are some typos in there, there always are, and I will be running through it all several more times to try to find them all while it is still marked Looking for Feedback. And I am! So please feel free to share feedback, and please be generous with stars in its early days. I will try to incorporate all the feedback I receive to make it the best it can be.

Understandably! Not too far off from my Anky. The original on live was a Spines/Regen Scrapper, and all green, and loads of fun. Simple costume so the Spines could shine in contrast. All tights with the Insect skin. Just happened to be the toon I logged in with when they handed out Globals, and, well, here I am. 🙂 i remade him here, but never took him past level 4 - though I do log in as him to author sometimes. (P.S. So great to see the run-through of All That Glows 2! All That Glows 3 is a Dev's choice believe it or not - more on that later, but a few tidbits added above now that you are done.)

Now that you have been through just about all of the All That G... stuff, I thought it might be handy to have a timeline of "when" you "were" in Praetoria and elsewhere because of time travel. This is all from memory so I may miss something 🙂 All That time Travel and the Praetorian trips timeline (Spoilers but not for anyone who has read Engineria's journeys)

Oh thanks! That is important story context for me too...

I suspect it was a map that they found in development and have been sitting on in they wanted to use it - and finally decided not to use it. Eventually, someone decided to roll it into AE because it was a nice asset not being used anywhere but it may not have gone through a lot of testing though as a result. Would be fun to knwo the real story though of where it came from and how it ended up in AE. It is obviously originally for a TF or Trial or something.

Agreed - and I was planning to explain the lava parts, the cannon parts and work within the quirks/interesting parts of the map - but the final room boss getting teleported to a place you can't fight them is map-breaking. Since the map is a relatively new feature Homecoming introduced, I posted it as a bug. Fingers crossed that something comes from it. For now, I will maybe try to work within the limitations and keep the encounters to the front/middle level, while giving players A LOT of info about how to proceed.

tldr; a boss, placed in the back, is teleported to the "green death pit" of the middle level upon the player entering the back room. This makes the boss unable to be fought. While I love the new Rikti Map's feel, it is a very complicated one, obviously part of a trial or something. I worked out how to use it, what the microreactors do, and more but ran into the game-breaking bug above. Any time I portal into the back room, my main boss is teleported away before the fight begins. The green pit of death in the middle room is problematic in other ways too, in that allies can get trapped there. They don't seem to die, but rather just stand around, like the teleported boss, making me wonder if they are dead and maybe mid-transport to the map's hospital - but the game does not know how to deal with that with allies? Removing all the "floor is lava" spots might make the map a little easier to use too. Have not tested that much in the back room as I encountered this bug, but worth considering if you do take the time to make your new, very cool, map a little more usable.

Has anyone gotten the Rikti Spacestation map to work for them? First, it feels like I need to give a bucket of info on how to navigate the thing, and how the microreactiors work to remove the shields on the cannons. Then i feel like I need to warn about the "floor is lava" spaces, and accommodate for them somehow with allies, who seem to fall into the middle room's pit in particular, with no way out. And I can't jump down to grab em cause I die since, you know, the floor is lava. And those were going to be cumbersome enough, but then, when I enter the back room through the portal, my big bad and her minions all immediately get teleported up to the middle room into the pit above, where again, lava for me, but they got some fancy shoes or something and stand around all unthreatening-like. Is this all just me? My only path forward feels like maybe ditching the allies, or giving them flight and seeing if that works, and putting the boss on the middle floor avoiding the back altogether - which is not great for a few reasons - not the least of which is that she still may end up in the pit.

Ah - the daring tale of Engineria and the energy-beings-that-live-on-stars-and-take-the-shape-of-beings-they-have-cohabited continues! And with such a large serving of boding! Forboding of the dark comet! (And maybe even some backboding because of the ever persnickety time-travel.) Tidbits and spoilers and the like. Will add in more as you share more of your tale!

Another exciting Engineria journey into the Ankyverse! This time it’s Kheldians and the whole fifth column / council schism. and thanks for finding the typos! Maybe the least played of all of the All That arcs, so definitely benefits from the polish. Tidbits…

Exciting to see Engineeria's run through brain puns unfold! (Let Go of My Ego, Beware the Ids that March, and now Super Ego Maniac) So much better with her telling of it! So many great and funny moments. Tidbit Responses - will add more as she unveils her journey.

And me awhile to realize it! Great read-through with good laughs along the way. Loved to see the grand conclusion through Engineria's eyes. All those missions defeating Pantheon gods on the way to this paid off as you could compel them to a very small degree. That map for the summoning was a handy find - lots of spots for captives - like that Adamastor pic - and helps set the stage for a dramatic finale, and glad it felt like an epic fight! That epilogue is "newish." I felt kind of like I needed to use the Vault of the Mu map in M5 for obvious reasons, but it just fell flat after the epic battle of mission 4. And then, it occurred to me I could do what I did in Glitters, an epilogue mission, which works for a 9 arc series. Sort of a "where are they now" mission that let's you get an in-world "feel" of the changes introduced, by you, through the story. I also originally had the gods you "rescued" in 1-3 escorted to the door - but escorts are never fun. This is also the arc where I started using the term "spirit guides" for these non combat escorts that guide you to an objective. M2 is big and multi-roomed, and M3 has a million forks, so the guides are there point you the right way in what amount to very simple missions to avoid the frustration of hunting for a single objective. And i still wish I found a better character than Finn McCool for the Celtic earth and life aspects of a god there, especially after @Darmian's feedback, but never did. The name is funny though - so that is part of the reason it stayed As to the rest... Can't wait to read Engineria's next adventure!

Like @cranebump said, the story has a beginning middle and end within the arc. Usually starts with some discovery, flows into further complications, uncovers the big plot which often includes a twist, and then lets your toon wrap it all up in a final mission. For me, no mission is a complete story. Standalone arcs tell the story within the arc, but several of mine are part of a bigger series. For most series I break them into little trilogies, that tell and conclude a smaller story in each arc, so you have some closure, but also have through-lines that build to a conclusion of the trilogy, which in turn have through lines for the whole series (All That Glitters and All That Gleams are both 9 arcs that progress from low to high levels this way, in three little trilogies.) Always I did try something like a series of single-mission stories in a single arc once upon a time. It was told in a progressive way, where each mission took place at different level, and zone/mobs appropriate to that level. There were months of time between each mission and your contact, a PPD officer, ranked up in the PPD from mission to mission until he was merged with a Kheldian in the final mission. What was originally the arc "Police vs Aliens" I later split into 3 arcs, added more about the Council/5th Nictus schism, and is now the 3 arc All That Glows series.

Well - thanks to you! If memory serves, you pointed out the Langston trucks by the Maxwell Stadium to me while I was putting that together. In fact, All that Glitters - which in part justifies Langston's expansion to Paragon City through the reclaiming of hazard zones on behalf of the City, helps justify why they are in Kallisti at all. I presume some of the new arcs touch on this (and why Arachnos has a presence) but on the off chance they don't, mine kind of works to do so.