Ankylosaur

Thanks for the suggestion - and for running through some of ATG! Unfortunately, I've done way too many of these to redo the approach. 🙂 The big limiting factor is that a single color tag takes up 23 of your limited characters - doing it twice for one person's comment is a lot of characters. Long ago, when I first tried this with Rularularian, I experimented with quotes too but decided it felt redundant in the end. Again - leaving them off was a way to scrape a few more characters out of the limit. I left the characters name in because while the color is a visual queue to who is speaking, I didn't want the reader to have to remember each color code without the support of the character's name. And not nitpicking - all ideas and feedback are welcome.

Why hello @TerroirNoir2 - pleased to meet you.

I have often thought exactly the same things. I should do souvenirs. People can't be expected to recall all this and a little "Previously On..." would be helpful. I never look at souvenirs. Ergo, no one else will remember to go do that. So then I don't bother... 🙂

I think he was on an upper balcony pouting that I missed him altogether... 🙂

And mine...

About those Risky War g4m3Z... Just some more thoughts as I see your playthrough. Probably should wait to read until you are done, and may update you as you go through it.

As to 3.3 - some notes/thoughts from your playthrough... will update as you complete it.

Realized I never shared any of the thoughts or story behind the story

Grown quite fond of Engineria in her journey. Really enjoying it. She's in for some more EBs solo in 3.2 so a little worried for her...

And Blend on the glove of yellow and orange and maybe stealth 2 style? Overguard for the shoulders? 🙂 (Design by committee? He already looks great.)

With the Mooks and the Gold Brickers working together, realizing this map could have been a home for the Golden Roller + Mooks together or something 🙂

Thunderclap looks great! But I might look at metallic flared gloves with a gradient too as an option... And you know The Doctor, is this Doctor, yes @TerroirNoir?

That's an amazingly obscure reference. Kudos! 🙂 (Not that I don't have more than my fair share.)

Tuning into my favorite channel! Clearly a few typos and other things to correct. Any mention of Nerva is a mistake - I missed that M2 mission pop-up and exit. This was originally in Eden, I moved it to Nerva's Crey facility, and then I moved it back. This may be the most often reworked arc of them all as it explains the Langstons, and that had to be redone with the new Gold Bricker lore moved zones a couple of times M1 swapped maps and mission as the zone changed. M4 map and mission changed a few times for other reasons. "Director's notes" - will add to this list as you work your way through the missions

I've had maps swapped on me if I added them from the "New Maps" section of AE instead of their "forever home". Once they get moved out of New, then AE might sub in a different new.

One of the great things about @TerroirNoir's playthough is that I get to see the experience through another's eyes. This has led me to do little tidy-up's in the wake of the review. The latest is 2.3. Terawatts in Terra Volta. As the industrial area of Paragon, it's fairly ignored but for the respec. With The Langston's having Antimatter's rector tech, it's a great place for them to expand to to shore up the aging Power Plant and make some cash. They also build a factory and distribution center there and that is where M1 starts. And that's where refinements begin...

I remember loving Hollow Point as an ally on that one. Super cool to have a traps buddy. (So many little treasures buried in AE 🙂 and well used by @cranebump).

Nice! It's as close as you can get to Terra Volta - which is a very one-dimensional, but neat zone with lots of different interesting buildings. Unfortunately, they are pretty much a flyover on the way to a Respec. When putting this together, I explored the neighborhoods and locations to position the different outdoor maps. Originally was going to try to use these industrial maps as Crey's Folly, but they are missing that yellow glow - then Terra Volta occurred to me, and the plot started coming together. With how they redid RWZ, Faultline, Dark Astoria, and a hint to it at the entrance of Boomtown, I had hoped the hazard zone redos were going to become a regular thing. But, since that never happened - this series is the best I can do with what we have. 🙂 It's nice they give us a chance to contribute In ways we want. If these dev's wanted to do it, Eden is ripe for some cool DE zone stuff using all the DE stuff from Praetoria - but that may be too well-trodden ground already. Maybe a zone event facing Hamidon's avatar? Crey's Folly with the whole Freaklok thing maybe? The often-forgotten Freaktown is there after all, and strange chemicals in the water is very Vahz. Plus of course Crey. (I'd take Nemesis out of there - they're kind of pointless - and put in the Freaklok stuff.) Shadow-shard -just throwing in some other groups with their outdoor building-types on existing islands - like in the new plaza would bring some life to this place. Seems like many groups would have special projects trying to leverage this place and the creatures here. Firebase Zulu - groups supported by the main base but out on their own islands Longbow could have a dup of the isle in Nerva Crey a dup of the building in Nerva with Shard creatures in cages Pocket D - put it out here as its own zone in a zone, like Terra Volta in Independence Port Cascade Archipelago - groups out here on their own Nemesis - they already have a base designed for the shard. The Council with a few buildings from Striga. Arachnos, with any reused fort from the isles - or several smaller ones Gold brickers - Langston HQ dup or some other building with some gold brickers since they have the D-rifter High level sky raiders with a dup of the striga warehouse and an oil rig <--ok maybe too far with this one 🙂 Circle - with a reskinned Flying Ziggurat map base that has Shard plants and no fog Boomtown - I reimagined a Mot-free Dark Astoria in Glimmers as the new home for the Praetorian refugees but, Boomtown could serve nicely for that since Dark Astoria will remain as is. Bump it to the low 20s - Loads of mobs at that level already they could just reuse to bring life to the place, with plenty of room for the mob types that are out there already. But obviously populating Khalisti is already a challenge so suspecting redoing a zone is a bridge too far. 🙂

Officially updated to... Wyvern has a proposition for you: Extract someone from Mercy Island. Up for the task? (Begins a long Vigilante campaign exploring the impact & power-shifts in a Post-Praetoria Primal Earth. Progresses from levels 1-54. Best played in the Mercy AE so you feel like you're there. Oh wait...) [SFMA] --- The only reason I suggest it really is for the mission loading screens. Since each arc is mostly anchored in a zone, if you do get to play in that zone, it kind of feels like a real arc, sorta, for a moment, while waiting for it to load.

I think I am going to update another thing that for some reason I did not do. Normally, when I have multiple contacts I integrate them in the text - will take a little work to get Jaena, Hellewise, and Nadia all into the text instead of the clues, but their dialog usually makes for more dynamic storytelling/convesations.

I am sure the stealth impacted the guides. The guides are non-required, non-combat, escorts. Like any escort, they mark the destination location on your map and usually in your display too. And like any escort, they don't really lead you, they just mark where to take them, and that goes away when you leave them. I set them to wander when they arrive (if you took them to their destination). They are there to help a little and for flavor. I think the rescue is a good change. I think I am going to update another thing that for some reason I did not do. Normally, when I have multiple contacts I integrate them in the text - will take a little work to get Jaena, Hellewise, and Nadia all into the text instead of the clues, but their dialog usually makes for more dynamic storytelling/convesations.

Great feedback - thanks! The original approach was non-combat, so none of the ratings were based on them fighting - getting them to fight was an attempt to bring more action to it. But it sounds like it was not an improvement in your experience. 🙂 The spirit guides are escorts that help by marking the map for your destination, that's all. They're there to make finding the glowies and the objectives easier. It's kind of pointless on M1 now, but at least gets you used to the idea. On M2, I would think they're pretty helpful since the glowies can be in a big area and the escorts in a cave. I can pull the Lichens easily enough too. I thought they were a little novel, but they may have worked a little better in the original map or at least before the escorts tried to chase them. Sorry to trigger BNY PSD. 🙂 So I am going with the simple option - just rescue them - and they are immediately under your thrall and they run for the exit. Feels a little more straightforward, but am sure it will be more fun and improve the pacing as a result.

Good feedback - probably my original thinking - especially since you can't fail it that way, but I did put in fail text that accommodates it. They can be non-combat, which is how it originally ran. But this might be mitigated by the unless I'm squishy and the NPC is powerful part - the premise is you are compelling gods to fight for you in a bigger fight later so gathering them. The escorts are AVs - so pretty powerful. (Adamastor and the OG Woodsmen) Admastor lumbers slowly so his smaller map will help make that less tedious, and in the other, you have two AVs for a speedy plow through and exit.

Originally Sparkles was female back when I needed custom Gold Brickers, but I kind of love a big Boomer called Sparkles. Historical note:

Jim the Merit Vendor and Rhonda Jones the Inspiration Vendor are the vendors in that part of Faultline. 🙂 I also have the Pocket D contact wandering around there, (though could not recreate his outfit)and several other Robopals. Another little Easter egg is a Recycling bin that has directions to the hidden Cryptic Lounge in Faultline.