Ankylosaur

@Darmian - you did - but thankfully, some kind souls have updated the homecoming wiki with all of their bios. In the end I created the Smelter version of Zoe since its easier to get closer to her powers. The updated wiki also gave me nice images/stats/bios to approximate the Breakers, Smelters. AU Brickers, AU Bombers, AU Rifters and Golden Brickernauts - Mr. Rodney too. The Smelters are tied to Zoe and some of the tech from old ConDev labs. The AU stuff appears pretty late and are tied into the raid on Crey (since their stuff uses Crey tech in part) and general ConDev group since they could all be inter-dimensional traveling buddies. It's all a bit of an aside, but it fits.

That took less time than I expected 🙂 Added in the changes and Glitters better integrates with the lore introduced by the Aeon Strike Force. Now I just need to buckle down and finish the Finale to All That Glints... So, @Darmian referencing your post above - I finished the thing. 🙂

A quick update on some future plans... I had made a pass to update All That Glitters with the new King Midas and Gold Brickers months ago. That initial pass focused on the story above and integrating the new King Midas and other characters into the existing story. I created some customs to fill the gaps, but had been hoping at some point that the devs would put the new Gold Bricker mobs in the AE, (and also fixed the broken 36-20 level mobs that did make it in - i.e. Rocketmen, Bombardiers, and Boomers) but alas, that never happened. I have been thinking about how to better integrate them into the story. Because so much of this new tech they have comes from stolen tech (e.g. AU-folk using Grey Armor and attacks) I think I can work that nicely into the stories (since they are raiding Crey for other reasons) and slowly introduce the new mobs across the levels. Will take some refining but I have ideas here... Updated the spoiler in a previous post (jan 14) with those changes.

Thanks for the mention @TerroirNoir! If you are looking to level a character, @Marshal_General, my All That Glitters Series (and it’s companion series’ which fork off it around level 20) go from level 1 to level 50 - sort of like the Kheldian arcs do. The core idea behind each series is to explore the fallout of the Post-Praetorian Paragon. Glitters focuses on the proliferation of tech and science and how a couple of groups use that to good effect building up to a huge coup and shift in power among some lore based rivals. Glimmers focuses on Magic and the First Ward folk trying to retake Astoria in a Post-Mot World as their new home and also leads to a huge shift in the balance of power exploring a lore thread that ever got built out. Glints focuses on Natural/Mutant (psi) and is a follow up on Penelope Mayhem and the Mr. G red side arc. A hard drive crash stalled me here on this finale but the ideas, maps, etc are all built in my head. 🙂 just takes some interest in it for me to bother. :)

Oh - and if memory serves - they added the limit of 6 ambushes because originally farmers were using loads of ambushes and across all the missions running them it was bogging down the servers.

A second best could be wandering groups with perception enhancing powers (e.g. targetting drone) - they may eventually make their way to the player and you could spawn several each wave but it would be very unpredictable.

Thanks for the playthrough and feedback. The prize is an added boon! Frankly it was this contest that got me writing arcs again several years ago - any arc exposure, reviews or feedback is a wonderful gift - thrilled you brought it back.

Terrible to hear. So sorry for your tragic loss. Keep your loved ones close.

First - holy cow - what are all those tags?! I feel like I have been at this awhile and other than SFMA, the others are rarely used. (I have even gotten lazy with SFMA frankly and should fix that.) Obviously I have been missing out or they just are not that common in practice. Second - in my experience - the devs are very generous with extra arcs as long as your arcs are story driven. Third - Scrapbot just started up his weekly contest - which is what got me writing arcs again a few years ago. The dev one is running regularly too. Looking forward to mor stories!

Welcome back! Thanks so much for bringing this back. Super generous of you to give your time and to give exposure for arcs!

If you look at earlier posts, Mission 2 in PvA1 has changed once before, and it has now again. I had used the Skyway map in its most recent iteration, because I never had before, but really its a bit sprawling and the failure flee mechanic a bit cumbersome. Plus Warshades are hard to find since they are translucent makign travel an searching on this multi-tiered sprawling map a chore. In order to accommodate Buddy Bolton as an Ally I had the conceit that he was in an impounded Sky Skiff so he could follow you on this multi-level map - a bit too much of a conceit really. It was a great scene with trolls rioting and Police vehicles, but it did not play too well. I have since found a way to use that map in All That Glints finale - so i pulled it from here. Instead, on the theme of the Police, M2 now uses a Police station map - a map that I have never been able to find a use for before, but fits really well with the core of the recent iteration of M2. Gone is the Troll riot, but the core idea of defeating a Nictus and him teleporting to another spot in another form is something I could squeeze into the tight, inflexible maps that are police stations. It also makes it nice and short, since the meat of the arc really is later and players are forced to a lower level to fit in with the "reflecting on a memory" / choice A or B ideas that make up this arc. I suspect because a few people have been playing PvA 2, some wanted to see its "prequel" which is wildly different of course. Ratings have been all over the place but - still - I want the experience on this unusual experiment of an arc to be a good one. By whittling down this interaction to just the root of it, hopefully I've taken the experience in the right direction.

Well if you are doing Vanguard - the Vanguard base allows 9 in the back but they will be pretty spread out - not sure anything can accommodate the "at once" part. The Bulge could be a cool outdoor location. The Portal cavern allows 9 in the back - not sure I have ever explored this map - now I have to go see what it looks like. 🙂

"Dual pistols lite" was on MM Thugs first I think, but I do believe Maelstrom an Dual pistols appeared at about the same time. I made a "as close as I could get facsimile" of Desdemona for some my arcs, but she definitely has some unique pieces and is not in AE. And maybe in my arcs it was just laundry day?

Part 2 is live now also, wherein I explore much more of the Mr. G and gang side of things while still in the overall pursuit of Penny Mayhem. One to go - which is already taking ever-so-slightly different turns than what I had planned...

In fact, here's a screenshot from Oct - none of mine were HoF, except the one that won that month, all others were Dev's choice. I think I took this because it may have been a change too? I think this was the first pass at trying to "feature" the latest Dev's Choice - giving it both HoF and Dev's choice...

If memory serves (and it might not) I think everything used to stay listed as Dev's choice, like @WrongNumber said. But I think the challenge was that the new Dev's Choice's of the month were not elevated to the top of the list. As that list grew longer they were not even on the first page, so in an effort to "feature" the latest, everything that was Dev's choice previously got moved to Hall of Fame. An interesting side note to this - presuming the above is right - is that because of it one of mine was given a Dev's choice for a second time since there was no indicator anywhere (except my sig?) that it had won previously. (I asked them to remove it of course to get some new ones out there.) I suspect that the Hall of Fame for farming is not how it was originally intended, but I suspect farmers like to know which ones are the most popular too.

At the end of Mr. G and Marchand's in game arcs, a few key things are established: The Council is ripped apart and weakened, opening the door to the Fifth Council returning. Some of the lieutenants are missing or in prison - leaving a power vaccuum (Requium and Arakhn and the fifth column ns Nictus subplot I mostly dealt with in Police vs Aliens 2: Nictus Evictus) The Council took some of Marauder's DNA and are working on a super-soldier program based on it. The UPA, who under Calvin Scott teamed up with the Council, was without a leader. Penny Mayhem is crazy powerful and mad - controlling all the Awakened. Wu Yin gives up his memories and Vanessa Devore, still trapped in a mask on Desdemona's face wants to help her daughter. (Dealt with the trapped in a mask thing in Glimmers). While I include Provost Marchand and the New Praetorians as allies in Glitters and Glimmers as those series in the later missions, they don't deal with the fallout of the in-game Marchand and Mr. G arcs - so that's what this series attempts to do... All That Glints 2.1: Leggo My Ego - (20-29) You meet Katie Douglas in Provost Marchand's arc. She has decided to go into retirement essentially. However, because of a cacophony of psychic noise she decides to try to find someone to shut it own - and that happens to be you. All That Glints 3.1: Beware The Ids That March - (30-40) Having met Aurora Pena investigating the same thing on Striga, she takes charge. All That Glints 4.1: Super Ego, Maniacal (40-54) Now that the villain is revealed and cornered, she lashes out! I'm hoping it turns out as a reasonable treatment of Marchand's and Mr. G's arcs while fitting in and expanding upon all the other ATG content I put out there... And - if nothing else - its a lot shorter than all of that. 🙂

ANOTHER post-Praetorian series?!?! Yes, it's true! Having forged ahead exploring threads of a post-Praetorian Paragon, despite a conspicuous lack of interest from AE players, and a series of arcs so large that it makes any of it hard to consume,🙂 there was one set of "stuff" that still lingered and remained unexplored, and, well, I'm exploring it... This time in a MUCH shorter series than the others of only 3 arcs. The three arcs in All That Glints will be: All That Glints 2.1: Let Go of My Ego - (20-29) - Final All That Glints 3.1: Beware The Ids That March - (30-40) - Final All That Glints 4.1: Super Ego Maniac (40-54) - Final Let's review! All That Glitters (Tech/Sci - 12 arcs) - is the main (or at least) first story series. It is much less about Praetorians than it is about all their tech and its impact on the power dynamics in Paragon. In fact the "Glitters" originally referred to the Goldbrickers who play a key part in this. It ends in an epic arc that changes the dynamics of the Isles forever... All That Glimmers (Magic - 9 Arcs) - is a fork off the main thread, and explores what the magic ex-Praetorians from First Ward do on Primal Earth. The story begins in Astoria, where the Carnival of Light and other First Warders find themselves reclaiming the now Mot-free zone. But behind all of it is someone pulling the strings to upend the balance of magical power and involves all sorts of magical mysteries - including Neo Tokyo. All That Glints (Nat/Mut) - Another fork off the main thread, it explores the world after the Provost Marchand and Mr. G arcs - psi and Council and UPA related stuff. Fairly sure it's ending will not be quite as epic as the other two, but it's shorter! All That Gleams - is a single arc that serves as a punctation mark on all three paths - wrapping them up and suggesting the impact they have had on Praetoria. It is even inclusive of Police vs Aliens, which is part of all of this too really. So if you want to start at the end - start here! As with all of these, I ended up publishing one arc that gave me ideas to do others. Glitters - The Ghost in the Machine was an inspiration for who King Midas was (before the Aeon SF told us) and the core start of the idea behind Glitters - though that took all sorts of new directions. It's needed some rework since the Aeon SF changed who King Midas was, but I think I have that ironed out now. Glimmers - When Carnivals Collide was about the Carnival of Light vs. Shadow - it is Rogue / you're on the side of the Carnival of Shadow - and gave me some of the ideas for Glimmers, though Glimmers is also VERY different from its inspiration. Glints - In this case I am expanding on an idea in Return to Faultline, but it is also a VERY different take on it - what was crammed into a few missions of that arc has room to breathe with an infusion of a new plotline and players.

I do feel like I have had some boss dialog not "play," but not 100% on that. It usually happened when defeating them quickly and the engine did not spit out all 3/4, 1/2 and 1/4 damage messages - but again - that was awhile ago that I recall that. I tend not to use all the damage messages as a result anymore unless its on an AV or something that takes longer to kill - so either I fixed it by changing my behavior or it just works better now. 🙂 The only time when mission text goes missing before publishing in my experience is when editing the wrong file (autosave vs actual file). However, once published, I have edited something I just republished and found it was not changed. I suspect that is a caching issue. The danger is if you edit that cached version and republish then your previous changes disappear. So, if I publish and then decide to make another quick edit, I spot check to make sure my recent previous edit is there before editing further. If it is not, I close the window and try again and it usually updates to the latest from the server. As to mobs missing - that's an odd one - has only ever happened if editing from multiple computers where one computer does not have the mobs.

Just cross-posting here in case anyone wants to add to the original bug post over in the other forum.

There are a few places in AE where a mob group is listed as a different set of levels than the mobs within it. Additionally there are some mis-labelled mob ranges too on individual mobs. The Awakened The Awakened mob group is listed as levels 20-34. The individuals within it are listed in the menu as levels 20-34. However, if you go to place a boss, they are listed as 20-54. In practice what this means is that they are 20-54 and will appear the right level when used in a mission of say level 40-50 within their original mob. However, if you integrate them into a custom mob with standard or customs outside of the 20-34 range, the game engine won't include them in a mission outside that range. For example - see the subjugator level range vs the mob level range The Goldbrickers Since the Aeon Strikeforce release there is a new set of the standard Gold Brickers in the mob who are listed as being in the range of level 36-20. That needs to be switched to 36-54 I suspect. Note that the new custom Gold Brickers (e.g. Breakers, Smelters, Brickernauts, Princess Zoe, King Midas and Mr. Rodney are not in the mob.) See the screenshot Wyvern Wyvern now caps out at level 44 - much higher than the group states (level 30 I think). I think that was after the Freaklok release.

Hear hear! @Take One tells great stories.

Thanks for fixing that and for recognizing my Hammiggedon arc! (It is still missing it's dev's choice badge in AE, and I think got a Hall of fame instead by accident, but I am sure that will be fixed soon too. 🙂 )

A few months ago I completed another post-praetoria series - All That Glimmers. This one focused on the magic fallout of Praetorian refugees. It's a 9 arc series / campaign broken into three major chunks that grow in levels. 2.1-2.3 20sish, 3.1 - 3.3 30sish, 4.1 - 4.3 40sish. It starts from the premise that the First Warders are relocated from Refugee Island to the newly, post-Mot Astoria in an effort to reclaim that neighborhood. What follows explores a hook that was going to be core content in future releases (though I take a very different path in pursing that hook) and even brings in Neo Tokyo eventually. If you are looking for something Praetorianesque, it could be something new to try. And though it may not look like it from the outside, Police vs Aliens 1 is definitely a Kheldian / Praetorian story. I've been playing around with ideas for a series about the post-Mr. G primal story (All That Glints?) but making slow headway.

Here is how I think I will fit what I have already written with the ASF... This is all spoiler - just putting this here to explain it and in the hopes it inspires someone to go through all this madness of a campaign once I get all this fixed... 🙂