Ankylosaur

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?

So @LordRassilon just completed this series over on Twitch and it was interesting to see all of the changes in play with the updated Council and Cimeroran Traitors and Nictus powers. One of the things that was interesting to see was how things have evolved. Because of the updates to the base mobs, the Council and the Cimeroran Traitors were different than they had been when I created this and more of a challenge. Part 3 was written for a contest and used the new Cimeroran maps when they came out. One of the more surprising things to see though was the Vespillos Pass base map has been updated since I created this! You go there to chase down Arakhn and discover Burkholder is there with giant robots - and the reason I made Council your quarry is that the map used to be a Council map. Looks like the Devs have updated it with 5th column flags/insignia and I think the giant robots were reskinned a bit too. Maybe an insight into an update coming soon? All I know is that it was definitely Council when I made this. My story is a little thematically broken as a result, but its a Dev's choice so will leave it be - maybe they captured the base from Requiem or something and just haven't gotten around to swapping out the insignia yet...

So this is impressive, but a fair amount of additional work for the author and the player. Said another way - it's hard to get people to play these things anyway - getting them to log into another thing may be a bridge too far for many players. The experience might be unique enough some may try it, but in my experience people tend to burn through the stories, not really look for more words (despite my penchant for putting in more. 🙂 ) Since the "revealed" arc ids need to be active anyway within AE, meaning it's not like the code actually unlocks an arc you otherwise could not just play, the main advantage here is the dialog - which is a cool addition. (In AE you could just include a branching arc name or ID within the Clue/Souvenir in AE.) One pretty unique thing you could add, that has been requested often, are cutscenes. Each dialog block could have the person you freed/defeated animated and speaking, or it could be a whole scene someone made with multiple characters conversing. Maybe include a way to embed a Youtube video for cut scenes made with demo record in the dialog? (Not something I would personally take the time to do yet, but I am sure some would). Presuming that is not in violation of the terms of course.

The most obvious to swap out for me are the "control" offense powers of Pulsar and Gravatic Emanation or the Aim powers - but in the warshades case, kind of a common/dramatic one. With Dominator assault sets, there are no nukes but this is really a blast set with the blaster secondary punches merged in.

The thing is you'll want to place your ally at the back - and in the Atta map, the back is not quite as far back you would probably want - I think it's like the second right - the mini map in AE will show you. So you could probably do a different map. Something big like the few big outdoor maps like the Cimeroran valley map or castle map that have a back might work. Most standard maps other than caves span multiple floors so are probably not the best.

As in the Shadow Cyst Crystal mob? Agreed! Would love all the Unbound Nictus added to the AE Nictus mob. They recently cleaned up the Nictus mob in AE by making the Void Hunters their own mob, but would love to have the full actual Nictus mob available. I wonder if it is that "disjoined" power they have that makes that not possible - the write up of it being "gained" when summoned by the crystal makes it sound like it may not be an issue. I fudged unbound Nictus and Shadow Cyst Crystals for my All That Glows post-New-Praetorians-arc-Arakhn-vs-Requiem series by repurposing Storm Elementals in a custom Unbound Nictus mob surrounding the destructible object - but the real thing would be better. (Plug: @LordRassilon is playing the finale of that on twitch as MollyMauk76 this Monday.)

Cross-posting...

Me either - it's really phoning it in. 🙂 But now that I know it does, I'm surprised the follow works without issues. I picture an afk farm like this... Take a fire/spine brute in with auras ablazin' Rescue an ally who buffs, probably a ridiculous custom one with ALL available buffs. The rescue spawns heavy patrols. Auto-fire your burn patch. Have lunch. Never made a farm nor do I have a farming toon, but there - a guide. 🙂

@WhiteNightingale, I don't recall that faction but in case this helps, Praetorian Nightstar and Siege are in the Generic Villain "faction" I don't recall every seeing Shadowhunter in there.

We were given loads of new power sets with the latest update, so probably selfish to want more, but I would still really love to have the Kheldian power sets represented. Rather than just ask, I thought I would take a stab at putting something together. Maybe, if anyone else is interested in this and we are clear on what we are looking for it can give the devs a springboard from which to explore the idea. Some guiding principles for my initial list. Need a primary and secondary set for Peacebringers and Warshades Should fit within Architect constraints to make it easy to add (e.g. no new category like Kheldian and kept to 9 powers) Should look to existing mobs to identify powers devs already deem appropriate for an NPC (i.e. the toon AI knows what to do with it and its not overpowered for an NPC or has NPC balanced numbers already) Attacks should mix melee and range Should include the Nova and Dwarf forms Where/naming The Primaries are Luminous Blast and Umbral Blast, but because they include ranged and melee powers, they seem best to put under the Dominators "Assault" powers which do the same and model them on those. The secondaries are armors, which could fit under any armor secondary really. Peacebringers Luminous Assault Using the PPD Transcended and Sunstorm for inspiration, along with the basic flow of a Dominator assault set, and no nuke it could look like this Gleaming Bolt Gleaming Blast Radiant Strike Proton Scatter Luminous Detonation Inner Light Pulsar Incandescent Strike Bright Nova Luminous Aura With this I just picked common armors. I included Light Form as Sunstorm has it, but I think Conserve Energy may be better really. Incandescence Shining Shield Essence Boost Thermal Shield Quantum Shield Reform Essence Conserve Energy Restore Essence Light Form White Dwarf Warshades Umbral Assault Using Galaxy Troops and Arakhan, Romulus, and the flow of the Dark Assault set I came up with this - no nuke Shadow Bolt Shadow Blast Star Punch Gravimetric Snare Sunless Mire Essence Drain Gravity Well Gravatic Emanation Dark Nova Umbral Aura Again focused on core armors and powers used by Galaxy troops primarily. Absorption Gravity Shield Orbiting Death Penumbral Shield Twilight Shield Stygian Circle Stygian Return Eclipse Dark Dwarf Thoughts? Are there key powers you think are worth trading out for? Are there some things in here you think should not be? Some decisions I made Neither assault has the Eye beams or the Nukes Neither set has their "pets" (photon seekers are probably easy, but the unbound essence power requires targeting fallen enemies which seems unlikely to be useful, and, maybe even something the AI does not know how to do) Both armors have their tier 9 Light Form/Eclipse

The Atta map refers to a very large custom map that is where Atta of the Trolls lives in the Hollows. Probably popular for farming because it has so many spawn points and corners where you can gather mobs. As said above, you'll have to explore other maps to find the one that meets your farming needs. So many people have made farms though, I bet you can find one that you like.

Been tweaking the first one, Pandemonium in Night Ward. I removed the Talon "Diviners" from the story. Their description makes it clear that they were followers of Serene, so I had them hang back when all the Talons and Diabolique fled Night Ward for Astoria, but in the end, I think they just complicated things. There is enough going on in here with all the shadow and demon stuff to not include them in the mix, and instead focus on the main antagonists as a more unified group. Also made a map change, and several other language refinements in both story and typos.

Great to see! I am in the middle of doing something similar with my Neo Praetoria series that is still a WIP. Mine picks up right after The Magician's arc, but is tied to my Neo Tokyo stuff so I suspect we are not treading the same ground. Will be fun to see your take!

I was on Pinnacle: Character names I recall: Plymouth Rock, Immortalious, Fire Kracker, Sun Volt, Dr. Gravitron, Hemogoblin, Mesmerizo, Ankylosaur

If looking at offices, why not stuff (like windows) from the Khalisti Wharf office maps in AE?

EBs do not spawn as part of a group normally. You can name one as the boss and have the group around them, but that is the best you can do to include them with the rest of the gang.

My most aggregious example of this and where I uncovered the issue was when I made the playing cards for the Adventures in Wonderland. Because I wanted to use the number chest decoration on them, I actually had a mob with 52 characters in it, on top of the MANY other custom mobs in that arc. I realized if I moved a bunch of "cards" out of the mob to another placeholder mob that was not in use, it could load without issue.

This is similar to my file size issue, where it times out with the map server when loading because, while loading, its sort of hung and not communicating with the map server. In the past this was only on really large missions for me with a file size over 42% once published, but I have encountered it on smaller one recently. If you resize the editing window so you can see behind it you'll probably see a "Lost Connection with the Mapsserver" text banner thingy. In general, if it were a large file size - reducing the number of custom mobs helped me, and that is throughout the arc as it reduces file size. But one other thing that seemed to help, sometimes, was loading the mission from within the Architect Editing room. No idea why - and YMMV - but worth a shot. Have also been getting good success in hours when the server is quieter.

After watching @LordRassilon complete both Glimmers and Glitters it gave me an idea to completely redo the final mission, in the final arc, of Glimmers. Here's the sorta syllogistic reasoning In Glimmers 3.3 M4, there is a big ultimate fight which is pretty epic, but, in M5 I just had you do it all again in a "oh they are still trying it" kind of way in the Flying Ziggurat map - but in practice it was not nearly as exciting/harrowing as M4 and I think leaves it all just a little flat. In Glitters 3.3 M5, I have an epilogue mission - which is kind of satisfying. In it you get clues that talk about the results of all you accomplished - kind of a "where are they now" device, which brings good closure to such a long series and such a significant coup. Therefore, to improve Glimmers 3.3 M5 I realized I should replace the "do it again" mission of Glimmers with an epilogue mission. So I did - I made an epilogue mission in M5 of Glimmers 3.3, letting you better explore the results of all your hard work, and glimpse the effects of the coup, and general fallout of the entire series - etc. Plus I used the Flying Ziggurat map in my new Neo Praetoria series (still WIP) and you know I don't like to reuse maps unless you are returning to the exact same place. Plus it gives @TerroirNoir something unique to look forward to in Glimmers 😉