Ankylosaur

Vicious Circle was a pretty clever gang name. 🙂

So then I tried to synopsize one of my ancient plots from my own arc Condemning Croatia (a golden oldie from live back before reside could go to Croatoa). Write an outline of a City of Heroes 5 mission story arc, with Veluta Lunata as your contact, and the main plot being that Arachnos wants to help the Red Caps defeat the Cabal and the Midnight Squad with the player's help, and force Croatoa to be subsumed by the Spirit Realm. Each mission should include a named boss to defeat and a clue the player discovers about the larger plot. Mission 1: "The Red Caps' plight" Contact: Veluta Lunata Objective: Help the Red Caps against the Cabal and the Midnight Squad. Clue: The player discovers that Arachnos is behind the Red Caps' plight and they are trying to use the player to defeat their rivals. Mission 2: "The Cabal's stronghold" Contact: Veluta Lunata Objective: Infiltrate the Cabal's stronghold and gather intel about their plans. Boss: The Cabal's leader, a powerful mage known as "The Magus" Clue: The player discovers that the Cabal is planning to summon a powerful demon to defeat the Red Caps. Mission 3: "Midnight Squad's ambush" Contact: Veluta Lunata Objective: Stop the Midnight Squad from ambushing a Red Caps' convoy. Boss: The Midnight Squad's leader, a skilled assassin known as "The Shadow" Clue: The player discovers that the Midnight Squad is working with the Cabal to summon the demon. Mission 4: "Demonic ritual" Contact: Veluta Lunata Objective: Stop the Cabal and the Midnight Squad from completing their demonic ritual. Boss: The demon they are trying to summon, "Baal" Clue: The player discovers that Arachnos is trying to use the chaos to force Croatoa to be subsumed by the Spirit Realm. Mission 5: "Croatoa's fate" Contact: Veluta Lunata Objective: Stop Arachnos from succeeding in their plan to subsume Croatoa Boss: Arachnos' leader, Lord Recluse Clue: The player discovers that Lord Recluse wants Croatoa subsumed by the Spirit Realm to access powerful magic for his own gain. The player's final mission is to stop Lord Recluse and his Arachnos from succeeding in their plan to subsume Croatoa and gain access to powerful magic. With the help of Veluta Lunata, the player needs to put an end to this plan by defeating Lord Recluse and his Arachnos. With the final victory, the player has saved Croatoa from being subsumed by the Spirit Realm and restore peace to the city.

So then, based on a convo in another thread, I asked it to Write a short story about City of Heroes where Darrin Wade kills Statesman. Include enemy gang names and place names. Darrin Wade, also known as Back Alley Brawler, had always been a thorn in the side of Paragon City's heroes. Despite his small-time criminal background, he had always dreamed of making a name for himself and taking down the city's greatest hero, Statesman. One day, Wade received a tip that Statesman would be visiting Atlas Park to address a gang problem that had been plaguing the neighborhood. The gang, known as the "Vicious Circle", had been causing chaos and destruction throughout the city and had recently set up shop in Atlas Park. Wade saw this as his chance to take down Statesman and prove himself as a true villain. He rallied his own gang, the "Freakshow", and set out to intercept Statesman at Atlas Park. When Statesman arrived at Atlas Park, he was met by Wade and his gang. A fierce battle ensued, with Wade using all of his strength and cunning to try and defeat Statesman. Despite Statesman's best efforts, Wade was able to land a critical blow, mortally wounding the hero. With Statesman down, Wade and his gang were able to take control of Atlas Park, and they quickly began to expand their territory, moving into other neighborhoods and terrorizing the citizens of Paragon City. The heroes of Paragon City were in shock, they had lost their leader and the city was thrown into chaos. They knew they had to act fast to stop Wade and his gang before they could cause any more damage. A group of heroes formed together and started to track Wade and his gang. The final showdown occurred in the warzone neighborhood of Boomtown, where the heroes were able to defeat Wade and his gang, bringing an end to their reign of terror and restoring peace to the city. But the victory was bittersweet, as the heroes knew that Statesman would never be able to lead them again. Paragon City would never be the same without him.

I asked ChatGPT to outline a short plot using City of Heroes characters and place names... The story follows a team of heroes known as the Freedom Phalanx, who are based in the iconic city of Paragon. Led by the powerful Statesman, the team is tasked with protecting the city from various threats, including the nefarious criminal organization known as the Council. One day, the Freedom Phalanx receives word that the Council is planning a major attack on Atlas Park, one of the most heavily populated areas of the city. The team quickly springs into action, determined to stop the Council and save the innocent civilians of Atlas Park. As the team battles the Council's forces, they encounter a variety of dangerous villains, including the powerful psychic Sister Psyche and the ruthless assassin Black Scorpion. Despite the obstacles, the Freedom Phalanx remains determined to protect the city and its people. With the help of other heroes from around the city, the Freedom Phalanx is able to successfully repel the Council's attack and save Atlas Park from destruction. However, they soon discover that the Council's true target was not Atlas Park at all, but the nearby city of Founders' Falls. The Freedom Phalanx must now race against time to stop the Council before they can launch their attack on Founders' Falls. The story concludes with a final epic battle between the Freedom Phalanx and the Council in Founders' Falls, where the heroes ultimately emerge victorious. With the Council defeated, the Freedom Phalanx can finally rest easy knowing that they have protected the city and its citizens once again.

@Darmian, I recall when you stumbled upon Mother Mayhem and Malaise in the Shadow Shard and it got your gears turning. I too think the way your solution brings the invasion and WWD together is genius. (And @cranebump I too feel like killing off Statesman was lame - when the Who Will Die stuff was happening - the answer was super obvious when it was even announced.) Most of my early one-shots explore unexplained threads/hooks like that and I know I find it super satisfying whenever I manage to stitch things together in a way that integrates nicely. Kudos!

Nope - All That Glimmers 2.3: Destruction in the Shadow Shard, arc ID 42073 is out there... Now, I did misspeak above and call it the last of the Apocalypse Plots instead of Doomsday Plots (Death, Drowning, and now Destruction) - but it is live, and the Harbingers of Destruction await you...

Would love to see it one day - but the one shots are much more likely. Glints and Glows are "just" three arcs each, so maybe that's easier to commit to. 🙂

Oh and hello! Looking forward to your run on the the next episode of Glimmers! Been hovering on the edge of my seat for the resolution of the Apocalypse plots and the new intel you unlock, getting a bit closer to what's REALLY going on.

I did not - he submitted a response while rating the arc and we started chatting through asynchronous tells. My stories were designed with soloists in mind, so it's great to see them with larger groups to understand the difference. I appreciate that he and the group tend to want to clear everything and find everything too.

It's long-standing, I think from live, and has been said to be difficult to fix.

So did I, + @Take One so maybe more will show up there too. 🙂 I got the sense that he will pick up AE stories sometimes Sundays, and, from watching a bit, I think he is live in the wee hours (maybe 1-6 AM) Ontario time. I would think new content is welcome, but hard to find, so this might help.

The final apocalypse plot will just have to wait...

So fun to see another arc show up on Twitch (at the 30 minute mark). https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1708939837

Twitch playthrough! https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1706907301 A big thanks to the group that ran through it - was so fun to watch someone experience something I put together. Unfortunately, I noticed a few little bugs with it, and a typo or two, but you can't modify Dev's choice easily, so I will just have to live with with them.

So good to be able to tune back in! Welcome back!

Happy New Year! (Oh, the anticipation! 🙂 )

It started with Helix, a Resistance member who has Kheldian powers. I thought I could put her into 1.x to introduce the All That Glows story fork during the Glitters intro. And then that turned into the effort above, in which I realized I could insert a few more of the Resistance into the 1.x series to make it have a few more Praetorians in its post-Praetorian intro. And then that became its own through-line thread - shoring up a few loose ends from a previous incarnation of this series. In short - there are more ex-Praeotirans demonstrably embedded in the Gold Brickers. This was always stated to be the case, but now is more visible as they include known named Resistance leaders. I was able to place them throughout without change to the story - instead - putting in these known, named folk, where before there were simply generic Boomers or Brickernauts without a background.

Oh and you know, the whole "coral spawn on the same one night of the year" thing is true. How crazy and amazing is that? https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/coral-spawning.html Wish I could recolor the coral spires to red - but at least the red coral spawn play their role perfectly. 🙂

Me too - except when writing. When I decide to do a Coralax story, then I spend some time reading up on the Coralax and Merulina stuff - trying to make sense of it all and discover the Virtea - would not expect anyone to know that they are there - but gives me something to add and helps me justify it in my head. The AMA Lore stuff is interesting as it talks about stuff that they were thinking of as story lines - and some of that is fun to ponder.

Exactly - hard to want to use that map, and hard to not use that map. There's another in here which is similar - thematically perfect, but HUGE... That is part of why M2 is so short. Initially, I was going to do a whole freak show mission - but it was all to fight one of the freak show tanks that is part Corlax. So to balance how ambling M1 is - M2 was whittled down to just the Chum Bucket with its two mobs, since that is squarely in Sharkshead. And - trivia - the Virtea are named in the lore, though they never make an appearance in-game.

A couple of refinements on the extreme ends of the series. In 1.1 - Missing in Mercy, I found a way to include a bit more of the ex-pat Praetorian story from the beginning. I always felt that I got to that a little late in the intro arcs and came up with a way to correct that. In 1.1, you are seeking a Praetorian scientist to make sure his knowledge falls into the hands you want them to. Rather than make it just about him, I peppered in more ex-Praetorians and even created a mob "The Dispossessed" that he would have been part of til he started to make his own way out. 5.0 - Redemption in Neo Tokyo got an update too. Unfortunately, the old arc was too large, and I would lose my map server connection every time I tried to open it. So I had to pull it down and replace it - losing its plays and 5-star rating. 😞 Oh well. This was a smaller sweep, taking in some of @Take One's feedback from long ago and updating a few things now that Police vs Aliens has been rewritten as All that Glows, and All That Glints has been written, and that Glitters lost ConDev and Revenants. Some Quality of Life elements in M5 too which was a bit overloaded with objectives. I reduced them while also upping the challenge a bit for the finale on that massive map.

After Engineria explored Glitters, I realized one of the things I did not do was really do much to seed the issues with Dr. Aeon and possible motivations against him that would make you feel good about ousting him. So I thought I would pop a clue or three in the series that shared more of the Dr. Egon story and came upon something that I had totally forgotten about, and, well, needed to put in. It's a tiny change with big implications. Professor Echo. In the few instances where you encounter him in the Marshal Brass arcs, you get a sense for who he is, but of course it also leaves a lot of open questions. So what do we know about Professor Echo... He is an older Dr. Aeon from the future He (mostly) looks the same with the same armor and abilities as Dr. Aeon. His hair is white and longer and he has a beard. We see him "chronoport" - i.e. time travel further confirming he could be from another time. Dr. Aeon says something like, "Wait, you're me?" to him. Dr. Aeon's? description in the mission with both refers to him as a younger version of Professor Echo He works with Wyvern Which means he's goodish (Vigilante I presume) He seems to be working against Arachnos and definitely Dr. Aeon His armor is a tiny bit different than Aeon His armor uses the same patterns as Aeon, but, where Aeon's is white, Echo's is black - i.e. opposite (His hair is opposite too of course) Could this mean his change in alignment is that he is from another dimension - e.g. Praetoria? Or did he just "turn good" and paint it a different color? At any rate, I have put him into the story now, too, as he clearly has ties to Wyvern AND is working against Dr. Aeon. Played through the Marshal Brass stuff again, and unlike the wiki photo, he has Aeon gloves I- game now too. I also would think he is /time now instead of /FF, now that the time set is available but will see where I land with that.

You can kind of picture them singing an old Smiths song... 🙂 This is the coastal town That they forgot to close down Armageddon, come Armageddon Come, Armageddon, come

I kind of like the idea of the forking specialization, but it's probably too different from what people have today. I have often just wished the shields were defense instead of resistance to give you some inherent means to mitigate status effects without giving full status protection. Now that there are sentinels - that does not feel like it would make these classes too overpowered, but someone better with the numbers would probably say otherwise. 🙂 And regardless - I guess that would give you even less reason to switch forms.

Definitely kept me busy during Covid lockdown! And now it's on the verge of a bad habit. (I'm working on an unrelated series in my head ATM.) 🙂 Congrats on completing the whole thing! So glad to hear you enjoyed it! You are the only one who has seen it through in its post-Aeon-Strike-Force-and-new-Gold-Brickers form. The ending is a little different (originally King Midas and Guido did win independence for the big island, but like you, @Darmian and @Take One both thought that a bridge too far. I really do value feedback! 🙂 Then I thought about how Warburg is faring as a renegade and William Langston would not want that for his city. He wants commerce to flow after all. So I guess he also dupped Warburg into helping him, but only to stay under Arachnos in the end.) It's definitely long and such a long journey needs a BIG change-the-game kind of ending. I went in with a loose plan and kept seeing opportunities to add to it instead of parsing out ideas into other series. My plan was a little too loose and subsequent series have benefitted (I think?) as I have planned them out more from the beginning. It also got a little streamlined when I pulled out some mobs (ConDev and Revenants) but did not get shorter since the missions were built so some threads may be longer than needed. Its length is also why both All that Glints and All that Glows are only three arcs each. Even though they have the same core enemy group, they are separated out from one another with distinct plots and through lines. Manticore's motivations are maybe a dash questionable, but you have been with Wyvern the whole time, so felt obliged to include him. One thing I still think I might do is squeeze in more clues about Dr. Aeon really being Dr. Egon and all the horrible things he did - its sort of presumed he's an enemy of Langston, rather than giving you reasons to dislike him. Can also make it clearer that William was supplying Arachnos/Recluse with their tech in the early days after his coup when he took the Isles and therefore has a pre-standing relationship with Recluse too. As to numbering, it's odd - no question - but it's the best I could come up with to represent forks in stories and chunks of the story. Way back in 1.x you had a few mentions of "Story forks." These clues point you to the other related series that fork off of 1.3. I did what I could to help people visualize it in my signature. Have considered renaming the intro to All that Gleams to pair with the epilogue. Because the forks are after the intro, they start in the 20s to be natural follow-ons from 1.3. 2.x is 20s-ish, 3.x is 30s-ish and 4.x is 40s-ish. Thanks so much! And you've answered a big big question - was it worth it in the end? Glad to hear it was at least enough to recommend! It was super-fun to put together (even through its many reworks for new characters) and I hope you had as much fun playing it! The other series don't have the big re-write this one had to accommodate the release of new mobs, new maps, and ret-conning in things. Hope you enjoy your journey into my take of the magic side of the post-praetorian story in All That Glimmers just as much! And thank you again for playing through all of these @TerroirNoir and documenting your journey. It's been wonderful to look through your lens, to follow Engineria. It's a real gift and I very much appreciate it.