Ankylosaur

Glad you all enjoyed wandering around wonderland! Thrilled and honored to be selected, Thanks so much!

Similarly, some could be “objects” people in mission that you can “collect” or be "defendable/destructible" but can’t interact with (e.g. Golden Roller, Fathim, television) but that can’t move.

Agreed - and I would think this would be easy. You can get to them through a Pets group today as either bosses or as captives, but you can’t add them to a custom group. For example, I included an Oni as a boss you fight in “Return to Faultline” and included the robots as allies you rescue in “Robolution”

One other tiny change I noticed. I am working on an arc that I wanted to use Hopkins from Crey. I would swear he used to be level 32-38 (an infuriatingly narrow range) and is now 32-44. Does he appear in the Freaklok content?

Ah - so then that one works 🙂 - its just trip mine and time bomb that they never used.

OK - so i created and tested a mob with these Devices powers, and here is what I learned... For some reason they were cloaked - not sure which power does that. If I gave them all the Devices powers, they did not use the new powers to attack. If I gave them they just the new powers, they did not use them either. So yeah - I guess nothing to see here 🙂

After exploring some other blaster secondaries I did notice some changes in ice and electric and I think energy too - power swaps, not expanded sets. Not familiar enough with psychic and darkness to know if they changed. Wonder what this does to mobs that have the old power sets...

I noticed something in AE that was different in i27 and thought others might too, so created this thread to keep them together. Feel free to share anything you find! Don't know if this is intentional or not, but the Devices secondary for blasters is chock full of extra goodness in AE now with both additional and modified powers. Only powerset change I have noticed so far but it may be an unintended consequence of the blaster secondary updates... Web grenade is now Toxic web grenade while Field Operative, Trip Mine and Time Bomb are new. If unintended I hope the AI knows what to do with the new powers. 🙂

Backstory The story is evolving as I write it. I know how hard it can be to keep up with all of it though, so if you want to know some of the backstory premises, I'm sharing them here... This is pretty spoiler filled, so I'd discourage you from exploring it unless you like to know the key plot points before you watch a movie. 🙂

Side Arcs Now that I have built the whole main thread, because it leverages and references several of my arcs I am considering retro-fitting those to fit them into the same universe. They will still be standalone, but like All That Glitters uses some of the things in these arcs - these arcs will be more considerate of the things going on in All That Glitters. I'll label these as All That Glitters Sidequests in their titles. Directly Related Side Arc: All That Glitters Side-Quest (Post 4.3): The Ghost in The Machine - 46 - 54 Arc ID: 33968 Status: Final This is what I created before any of the series and source of how I thought about Midas. However, it does not fit neatly in. Storyline wise I tried it as a the initial finale, but it did not really work. As the genesis of the whole thing it slots in nicely as a kind of epilogue - another example of the Langston / Aeon conflict. Made some small changes to address the meta AE/reality aspect of it - namely just a few sentences in the opening intro text - that help frame the nature of the missions better and how they relate to the real world events they often imitate or predict. The Magic side of the Praetorian Influx Much of All That Glitters stems from a simple change in the game, i.e. there's a an influx of praetorians and their tech and that could upset the current balance of power as groups get hold of them. But ATG focuses on the tech side primarily. What of the magic side? Save The Diver, Save the World - my first ever arc, it was also my first ever to win a community driven award on live in 2011. It was kind of vigilante mission before there were vigilantes (before Gong Rogue) and stems from wanting to bring the Coralax lore to heroes (before heroes could just go to the Rogue Isles). As its premise for you getting involved you are hired by someone to dig into this in the Rogue Isles, and that is what Wyvern does - so a possible rewrite with Wyvern asking you to do it on their behalf fits in all to well. Plus it features Faerlun, a character in ATG you meet in 1.3 so there is a tie in. It's also sitting at 4 stars, which is i suspect because the first map requires you to find a glowie on the flooded ruined city map and that is daunting to people. From some of the activity community here it gets positive feedback so a refresh and republish may be well in order here. But, could that flooded ruined map be Praetoria instead? Or maybe the Coralax come out of the oceans in Praetoria after Hamidon's wanton destruction? possibilities.... When Carnivals Collide: In this one the struggle is between the Praetorian ex patriot carnivals and our own evil one. However, it was built on the premise that both Vanessa Devores were alive and well on primal earth. I recently discovered the outcomes of the Underground trial which makes Praetorian Vanessa De Vore dead, or at least embedded in Desdemona's mask - not someone you can rescue in my M5 mission 🙂. This has big implications - either, the carnival of light has to restore her to a body from the mask or doing so could be a plot point of its own that the player must execute. It's also currently a rogue arc and a rewirte could recast it as a vigilante arc to tie it into the ATG world more easily for the RPers that try this (if any ever do). Crossovers Other stories I have have connections directly in these arcs. I could update them but likely will not. Policemen vs. Aliens - You meet Buddy from this arc a few times in ATG. It's VERY related to Praetoria - but I think it is what it is - a Kheldian story. Spycraft and Spidermen - This takes place exclusively on Warburg and uses a Longbow agent - Agent Goddard - as the contact as he is stationed on Longbow's ship there. But it could be turned into a Wyvern contact with minimal effort. Plus Marshal Blitz and the Blitkreig show up in both. Robolution - The Sky Raiders you meet are the same involved in Robolution, but there is no praetorian angle in this arc nor do i think there should be. I had created a blueside version once upon a time using Longbow, but it felt a little flat. The Genesis and Geneticists of the Coming Hamiggedon - This takes place mostly in Eden and reuses customs in ATG 3.1 that are integrral to this story, but is too tied to the contacts to fit in and bringing Praetorian stuff into a Hamidon story should come with its own special treatment. Return to Faultline - The few who played this gave very postive about how fun and fast paced this was while being light-hearted. - a fun sort of mystery solving gang adventure. I used Duke Mordrogar as a bit of comic relief in later ATG stories - maybe I should insert him as the mastermind behind the Demon onslaught that kicks this off? Foiled again, Duke!

Golden Evolutions With the Praetorian and Rikti tech making appearances in the arcs before now, its time to dig into their ir inter dimensional (AU tech) story. Where are they getting all their tech and what is the overall end game here? 4.1 Risky War GameZ in the Rikti War Zone 35 - 43 Arc ID: 37513 Status: Final Number Six in the Rikti War Zone has suspicions of ConDev connections. Help him investigate. 4.2 Pirates in Praetoria 40 - 50 Arc ID: 37754 - LFF Status: Final After the raid on the ConDev base, the New Praetorians want to find out where ConDev is getting all their Praetorian tech and shut it down. Help Marschand and the crew! 4.3 Grand Designs in Grandville 50-54 Arc ID: 38278 Status: Final A finale - for something this long has to feel worth it. I only hope I succeed at making it feel worth it all...

Golden Digitalization Langston has big dreams of a digital future that extends us all, or at least those who can pay for it. This establishes the deviously technical end of the Langston family (Princess Zoe and granddad) with implications for people everywhere. It also reasserts the Mooks into the mix as they share the island Langston claims as home. 3.1: Nervy Acquisitions in the Nerva Archipelago - 30-40 Arc ID: 35058 Status: Final Langston Corp. built a Gold Brick Candy factory in Nerva? They must be hiding something pretty big to build so out of the way. Help The Doctor find out what... Inspiration 3.2 Suspicious Maneuvers in St. Martial 35-40 Arc ID: 37948 Status: Final The Mooks have a casino in St. Martial? What are they doing there? 3.3 Calamity in Kallisti Wharf 35-44 Arc ID: 36693 Status: Final Big Brother Construction has been building out Kallisti Wharf while Langston is building infinite lives. Is that everything under construction in Kallisti?

Golden Expansion With their success in Cap Au Diable, Langston sets its sites on expansion to Paragon City! They have tech, know how, and construction contracts from the City to leverage this Praetorian tech in new and unexpected ways. Some may be above board, but some speaks to a bigger plan. You get your first glimpses into their new Fire tech and more connections with the Mooks here. 2.1: Boom Time in Boomtown: 15 - 20 Arc ID: 34715 Status: Final --- Though they've not done anything overtly illegal, The Gold Brickers have come to Boomtown. Help Wyvern investigate. Inspiration 2.2: Fortunes in Faultline - 20 - 29 Arc ID: 34947 Status: Final Langston is unveiling a new robot product in Faultline. What are they up to? 2.3: Terawatts in Terra Volta - 25 - 35 Arc ID: 34947 Status: Final Langston, Corp. continues to expand their operations in the abandoned corners of Paragon City. With a new presence in Terra Volta, help Wyvern investigate what they are up to. --- Inspiration

Golden Origins These origins establish the premise that Praetorian tech is making its way into the hands of several groups and the lengths that the Gold Brickers will go to leverage it. I wanted an intro to where Langston comes from, to steep the players in their origin place. It's also critical to establish the significance of the shared island that both Port Oakes and Cap Au Diable are on (people often forget they are the same island). Additionally, though Aeon Corp hires Gold Brickers occasionally, my take on King Midas puts Langston at odds with Dr. Aeon too. --- 1.1 - Missing in Mercy 1-10 Arc ID: 35842 Status: Final This was fun to do. Mercy had a big overhaul in I21 eliminating some tried and true contacts. Also has great maps available to us. 1.2 - Piracy in Port Oakes 8-12 Arc ID: 35355 Status: Final I always liked Port Oakes. Like King's Row though, these days you spend no time there. I have never created missions this low as I like making custom characters and, well, at this level the player may be a little delicate. But its a great setting and serves to explain the start of Langston's sudden ambition. 1.3 - Capitalism in Cap Au Diable 12-20 Status: Final Langston is from Cap, so we really should spend some time here. Also in the original Cap descriptions, there is another company DevCon or ConDev that the original storytellers seem to have never used. I've worked that in too. The Cap Maps are all very specific to the PTS story though... sooo.....

Introducing - The All That Glitters series of Vigilante arcs. Yay! Fireworks So I am working on a series. In truth, I always felt lucky getting anyone to play a single arc - so everything I have ever done so far has been self-contained. But several people have been putting together some great series, so I thought I would throw my hat in and take a stab at it (to mix some metaphors). I always thought having a series that unlocked new parts to the story as you leveled - like the in game Kheldian arcs - would be a good way to do it, so I went that route. Also, I felt that that The Gold Brickers were a somewhat low-level group that has lots of potential as a gang. On top of that there are several under-developed hazard zones in Paragon that could be the stage. All this underdevelopment means opportunities for me to fill it with something - hopefully good - we'll see... On top of that - I have never really taken a stab at writing for Vigilantes. It is a bit like writing a CoV arc, but with more positive motives - doing bad things for one group's view of the greater good. So I cast the villains, not as villains, but more like Rogues - doing bad things, but mostly for selfish reasons. And as is the gang's nature primarily targeting just the wealthy and those who abuse powers. Meanwhile you as a vigilante, are trying to take them down. Finally, the fall of Praetoria is ripe for stories about the fallout. I've done a couple of stories about that already, (When Carnivals Collide and Policemen vs. Aliens) but they're just scratching the surface. "All That Glitters" originally referred to the Gold Brickers but is now just as much about the Goldside "stuff." Some of the key players Langston Corp. (& ConDev - which also appears as DevCon on the wiki but that sounds like a programming conference so I went with the first. 🙂) The Gold Brickers (sometimes spelled Goldbrickers) Wyvern (and Delia Huntley) Maybe I'll take a page from @Darmian and call each a season and each mission an episode. Here are the seasons and episodes... Golden Origins - What starts it all off? 1.1 - Missing in Mercy - Arc ID: 35842 - 1-10 Final 1.2 - Piracy in Port Oakes - Arc ID: 35355 - 8-12 Final 1.3 - Capitalism in Cap Au Diable Arc ID 36056 - 12-20 - Final Golden Expansion - Go west young corporation, to Paragon City 2.1 - Boom Time in Boomtown, Arc ID: 34715, 15 - 20 -Final 2.2 - Fortunes in Faultline, Arc ID: 37097, 20 - 27 - Final 2.3 - Terawatts in Terra Volta, Arc ID: 34947, 25 - 34 - Final Golden Digitalization - Digital Killed The Reality Star 3.1 - Nervy Acquisitions in the Nerva Archipelago, Arc ID: 35058, 30 - 40 - Final 3.2 - Suspicious Maneuvers in St. Martial, Arc ID: 37948. 35 - 40 - Final 3.3 - Calamity in Kallisti Wharf, Arc ID: 36693, 35 - 44 - Final Golden Evolutions - Revolutionary Alien Tech Can Change The World 4.1 - Risky War GameZ in the Rikti War Zone, Arc ID: 37513, 35 - 43 - final 4.2 - Pirates in Praetoria, Arc ID: 37754, 40 - 50 - Final 4.3 - Grand Designs in Grandville, Arc ID: 38278, 50 - 54, - Final Consolidated the best of those struck out above in 2023 Golden Evolutions - Digital Killed The Reality Star 3.1 - Extractions in Eden, Arc ID: 35058, 35 - 40 - Final 3.2 - Calamity in Kallisti Wharf, Arc ID: 36693, 35 - 44 - Final 3.3 - Grand Designs in Grandville, Arc ID: 38278, 45 - 54, - Final

Don't get me wrong - more maps would be nice. 🙂

@Faultline - thanks for this. It's nice to know what goes into it. Based on your comments, maps like Bank Heists and Mayhem Missions are probably heavily scripted, which is why as a category, they would not be an easy port. But also based on your comments it sounds like most CoV and prior era maps are probably relatively easy. Is that true? I know, as an example, that Orenbega map in the clouds map (Scirocco arc maybe?) used to be in the AE and is gone now (not sure why). I recall doing many missions at the Cage Consortium plant but that map has never been in AE. Maybe if people look for maps from that era its more doable? Also from that era we have several maps that may be a great example of how hard these are to port which also renders them less usable in AE: President Marchand's office, (no real back to the map, though there is a "back" marker on a middle floor buried in a wall), the Seraph lab (which has a front marker in the back), and some serpent maps (which have no real "back"), the freak olympics map (no back), the Recluse Victory map (which has non functioning elevators) etc. I personally don't really "need" more maps, though they would be a nice to have. I enjoy the limitations in a small way. It forces me to be creative with what I have. Recently, for example, I did a story on the various Carnivals in part because there are those outside Carnival maps, which spurred some ideas to try to leverage them. (Carnivals of Light, War and Vengeance trying to find homes in Paragon after the Praetorian exodus.) But then my stories morph based on what is available - that may just be me.

Thanks for driving people to the stories out there! The greatest gift of all are the extra plays it generates. Honored to be selected!

Thanks for wanting to give it a go. It is by no means wildly different - the same core plot and text are there - but now it has more to engage with in the first few maps and more fight - more pow, zap, blammo and kablooey!

Occasionally you lose sight of your own vision for something. Such was the case with this arc - I made a decision that took a bit of the life out of this when I published it. After some feedback from someone who played through it, I finally had the gumption to go back and dust this off and correct that. It remains a pretty simple and not very serious arc - but hopefully is a bit more fun now too. Anyway still tidying up but made some significant changes to this arc that I will share if you don't mind spoilers. So in the end The first few mission goals change. The combat became more frequent/exciting. The sense of accomplishment defeating a final villain is better. (I hope.)

Has not had a lot of plays - but I have had a couple of nice comments on this one that I thought would help explain the feel. "This one felt like a proper comic book adventure, where a team gets split up, works together, splits up again, etc. Very cool." "Fun! Definite Scooby Gang/Buffy vibe coming off that." Thanks for the plays and kind words!

That is terrible that that wall spot exists - it essentially means I should probably make all those back room glowies floor collections instead. The safe is the only required one of course, but still... Wonder if a filing cabinet would stick through... Thanks for playing it and sharing your experience! (And for bothering to replay it after encountering that iced safe) Working on map 873... :)

I have done this setting the mission to empty, the ally to empty and populating the mission through bosses. I used to worry about so many bosses, but now that you can choose to just set them all to LTs as a player, I am less concerned. However you are right about them all auto-completing. One trick I have used here is to use mission text or the entrance pop up to say "I'm contact A. Meet me in the front room" and then have contact A be an escort that leads to contact B. Once reaching contact B, contact A says something and leaves and contact B is an escort to a glowie or contact C etc. If you want to see some examples in mine try missions 3 and 4 in Rularularian and missions 1 & 2 in Policemen vs Aliens in my sig.

Since initial publish I made some significant changes to the first two missions to make them more distinct and a richer experience. M1 involved the Hellions map, loosely based off of the original mission that uses it. I made it much more demony. I was struggling with the Skulls mission not being distinct, though as their map is similar enough, so looked for a better one to emulate - a real skulls grand finale. Using the Superadine warehouse, I replaced the "Skulls Office" and gave a much better mission against Veles that is skulls-only (no hellions). So mission 1 and 2 are now different and more distinctive and involved.