Ankylosaur

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 😉

You're right of course. 🙂 But at least I pared Glitters down from 12... Originally Glitters 1.1 - 1.3 was an intro to all of the different series - they all branched off it. But that was confusing to most - so now Glitters is simpler and linear, but the only one which has missions below level 20. (But yeah - people are more apt to commit to 3 and even that is a stretch. One shots still seem to grab most attention, with Adventures in Wonderland being my most successful with 800 ratings between what it has now and what it had before I accidentally unpublished it. That is more than all my other 30+ arcs and their ratings added up. Oh and I noticed that Adventures in Wonderland is back on page one! Wish I had not lost my 780ish ratings, but no one to blame but me.)

So they say to write the ending first… I wrote Ninjas in the wind as a standalone to explore Neo Tokyo and the Order of the Wind. It’s also why it has more plays than the others. Was really pleased with the arc, and it accomplished something I needed for another idea I had, which was to follow up on the Mu’Vorkan thing from the Dark Astoria series though my take on what was supposed to happen per the AMA is the opposite. But the struggle for power among the Mu/Scirocco is definitely the through line. After writing Glitters, where I had to completely change my original ending because my first one was not that good, for Glimmers I used Ninjas in the Wind as a clear destination for the stories preceding it. Overall Glimmers was a much more coherent story in my head from the beginning of writing it than Glitters. Glitters is there now, but took a lot of rework to get there. Itwas my first multi arc attempt, sprawled a bit, and went on few tangents - not to mention needing to rework it to incorporate all the new Gold Brickers and their updated lore with the Aeon SF. Anyway - each is pretty tight now - but 9 arcs is too long. It’s why Glints and Glows are 3. The All the Glows dates might be even weirder. But that is quite literally a different story. 🙂

Standard Map Ideas This is probably far too big to ask the devs to do, but reflecting on it, I am surprised there is not an "outdoor forest" series of small, medium, large maps as standard maps that used the kind of "forest tunnel" system that you see in Perez and Eden. Like caves you could have various combos of tunnels and reconfiged of the same basic parts to create unique variants. Similar to the ShadowHunter mission in the Number Six arc, seems like this could have been a thing. Seems like a random streetscape series could have been available too that represented the places between the war walls and just pieced square blocks together of maybe some of the different architecture styles. Convert More Old but Unique Maps Would love the last few maps on this list that are missing from AE to be added. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Demo_Editing/Scenic_Maps I know ones that need scripts (like Marchand's office as an example we know) are problematic, but am ever optimistic these are old enough that they can be easily converted to the AE format. I think these are the only ones missing Freakshow Office Misdirected Portal Misdirected Portal Window Mole Point Portal Portal Corp Outdoor (Lot of portal locations 🙂 )

Not that many. Here are the outdoor ones - off the top of my head The Cimmerora island, but now with front, middle, and back. The Cimmerora castle, but the full thing, with a fifth column back. The Cimmerora pass The Croatoa frozen winterland The CoH floating ziggurat island Cap Au Diablo with the crazy sky Anyone think of any others? Note that this seems updated from a quick spot check as all those and more (like the smelter cauldron) are here: https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Mission_Architect_Unique_Maps Any I missed?

This is not my area of expertise even slightly, but as a series based purely on scaling difficulty for teams, there is a lot of research/suggestions in here for balancing difficulty purely for the challenge of difficult fights. I believe this may be a bit of the gold standard for this kind of thing.

One of the things I sometimes do on really big maps with hard to find items, or on maps that are just hard to see (like the Council Atlas map), are what I now call "spirit guides" (because of how I first used them). Basically a friendly non combatant Escort in the area, a few multiples of it, without enemies around it, that they might bump into to mark the objective. So, for example, I think I used that very map in my Neverland one and there were some friendly fairies that could mark the map for you. Not sure if it could work for you in this instance - just sharing the idea.

Published the second part of this today. Escape Through First Ward Much simpler flow - probably plays pretty quickly as a result - a journey from Night Ward to Neo Praetoria by way of First Ward. Simple because each mission basically gains entry to the next mission. A nice way to showcase how Praetoria, outside of Neo Praetoria, has devolved. Was fun to tell part of the story through clues that your contact barely acknowledges or cares about. i.e. Your contact, one of the Angels of Mercy, has missions for you, but along the way are clues to what happened within the decimated areas you travel. Ultimately sets up Neo Praetoria as a location from which I can tell a lot of standalone stories if people want em. Suspect they don't. 🙂 And probably too ambitious. In the mean-time, All That Gleams works as a bit of a stand-in follow up for what happens in M5 where you meet loads of Neo Praetorian heroes and they all have jobs for you.

No. Dunno, but I would think sonic and rad would be contenders because of the debuff. If there are assault sets, then a nice mix of melee and range. And will it be fun?

Its true. The main reason I started logging into old ones was to update things to take advantage of new options when they come out. I wanted the newer Penelope for return to Faultline since I made it in 2020. (In fact there are two AVs and a boss pet version - wonder if one of them is Penelope Mayhem). My Gaians (a DE inspired mob) got updated with some nature powers, and Merulina now has Water Blast! The AE gives even when it muddles things a bit. 🙂

@ZamuelNow - its true about the multiple things affecting it. @cranebump - I think it would only be a problem if they were in a custom mob. I recalled that I have a low level toon sitting in the very quiet King's row, and if I go into the AE editing room that has helped open arcs in the past too. Maybe there are less toggles on things on him to calculate, or the zone is quieter. Whatever the reason, I was able to load and edit Return to Faultline. So now the new Penny Yin took the place of the old one and the psychic clockwork are functioning again. Whew! In my experience, it's once I get over 40% of the file size (which I think is about 5 times larger than it was on live - so not complaining about it - glad to have the extra space 🙂) when I start timing out with the mapserver opening published arcs. This one was no where near that big at about 28%, so not sure what was up with not being able to open it previously. I'm usually on Indom, and was in Cap on my first go. Things are a lot busier these days, so maybe that had something to do with it too. This time I edited at 7 AM eastern - a lot quieter.

This got a couple of plays which is great! But at 4 stars, I do wish I had some feedback so I knew what to improve. If you happen to have played it and have thoughts to share I am all ears. Was it too hard? Too easy? Did you not like the story? Too long? Too short? Were there typos? Were the allies too weak? Too strong? Too many clues? Too few? Did it rely on you knowing the Night Ward story too much? Or did I overly re-explain it? Oh and the one question it answers that reveals a lot about the plot is...

I just realized several of my arcs were broken with the lastest update - it has to do with using mobs that were also updated Psychic Clocks In Return to Faultline, I had mixed in Psychic Clockwork with the old Antimatter and Neuron clocks into a single mob. it no longer recognizes the psychic clocks, I presume because they have updated purple eyes now. I could re-add them to my custom mob but can't open the arc without timing out on my current computer. If I have a published arc with too many customs in it - whenever I try to open it I get the map server timeout - wish there could be an exception on that when opening an AE arc. 😞 (Wanted to put the new Penelope Mayhem in there and discovered the whole arc is broken.) When I try to play it, it just does not start - no contact hologram... Rikti Monkeys In Monkey Business, which involves the Monkey Fight Club, I had Rikti Monkey mobs recolored to team green, red, and blue and renamed them to match the monkey names in the fight club. Those must have gotten updated/removed with the lady gray update. No more Banananator. I can recolor a single monkey now for each team. but we lost some versions of the underlings to give me the three I needed to give them their unique names. At least I could fix that one. Rikki Blaster I also have run into an issue with my Langston Lab mob. My Xenologists used Rikti blasters, and I guess the costume part got renumbered? I could easily fix this one at least.

Oh and the Steel Canyon SERAPH map - that one is so close to great as a map, and so rife with problems. There is a Front location in the back of the interior. Because the front is an exterior in Steel Canyon a few destructible police vehicles would work great until one is in the back of the lab. Despite the map looking like there are several middle locations, there is only one. Escort markers seem to go wonky. And yet I still have used it a few times...

I ended up using it to write big chunks of the story in my latest - I've done similar with just a word doc, but found the character counts really handy! Thanks for putting this together.

I did something like this with a Pawn Shop - I think there is a jewelry store too maybe? In mine though you were investigating a crime scene I think. M1 of All that Glows 1.1 if you just want to peak at that one mission. The owner was just a boss ally, and he would say something when you came in, and you would then examine glowies which triggers the ambush. In my case though the boss could fight so made sure he could hold his own. You could probably make them really tough with no attacks?

Another little note - I find Dominator assault sets make for great a offense option as they mix themed melee and range. And now if Arsenal is in there, can finally have someone who can carry a gun and punch while still being able to give them a secondary.

Pandemonium in Night Ward Design notes I have been wanting to do something with Night Ward for ages. it's a kooky place, and after chatting with Darmian about it, he shared some things I had not found, and found a few myself. If you know any of my other stories, you know I like to find hooks that were never explored, or that I think are hooks that maybe no one else does. Because it feels like the next stage after Night Ward never happened - it feels like it is loaded with them. You could argue that Dark Astoria is the next stage with Diabolique and the Talons going there of course. And that right there is a story hook too - what is Night Ward like without them? Anyway, here's some of the things I tried to work in, much of it from that convo with @Darmian years ago now... Souls There are some special ghosts around. There are two ghost heroes that show up in different places. Darmian had included them in an arc at one point - part of Powers Division - while they were still alive. He shared their names and stories with me and I worked them in (though how they became dead is my own interpretation.) And I found the dead milkman, who appears in the same spot regularly. He died while driving his bitchin' camero. See pictures by clicking the link arrow in the header below. Angels And then there are the Angels of Mercy, scattered throughout. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Angels The Bereaved Demon And wayyyyyy down in Bedlam is a demon and a bunch of "Banished hoardlings." Loved who? Well I had to work that in too. Of course the bigger questions were, what has changed in Night Ward now that the whole Sister Serene arc is over, the Talons and Diabolique have left, and arguably most of the Black Nights have returned to the eternal prison to guard it. Plus - depending on where we pick up - what has been happening in Praetoria while you were hanging in Night Ward. And another question that I can't even ask here without revealing a bit of the plot. And there is the infusion of something new. A tie in with the All That Glimmers series where the Drudge were collecting something in Primal. With the Talons leaving - someone's going to fill that void. And if you want to see any of the folks above, or catch up on at least one interpretation of how the balance of power in Night Ward may have evolved, you know where to go... 🙂

Some of the funky unique maps have one thing in common - a custom final room. For whatever reason, I presume because they were originally used for some sort of scripted scene, these "backs" are not usable, making these interesting maps/locations less useful. Seems like this could be fixed though. Marchand's office - as you noted and well known. The Map details does say that there is no "back" but if you look on the mini map, on level 3 (not his office) there is a blue "back" dot in the middle of a wall sounded by corridors on Floor 3 of 4. Snake Cave - Sthenos' Lair Freaklympics - you can add glowies to the back though A couple of other funky ones Faultline - High Rise - the first floor is outside. Within range of outside is the Faultline Arachnos tunnel, which is not accessible by the player from this location. This means that if you put something to spawn in the front, it might spawn in the tunnel. You can get there by using test mode, putting a few objectives to "front" and jumping to the next objective. You can actually take the tunnel all the way out to a complete and empty faultline map if I am remembering correctly - there is no blue border preventing you. Nerva Primeva - I think because it is one of the only maps that is outdoors without a war wall (except for Croatoa and the abyss), and in water, I have used this little one a few times. Because it is small it has a clear mini-map that shows there should be one rescue point and four collection points. Even in game where it is used, such as in Maria Jenkins to represent Praetoria, it might use those spawn points, but for some reason we don't get them in AE. The map details has no rescues or collections spawn points. Wish this could be fixed. Praetoria outdoors - These seem to claim that there are an equal number of front and back locations, and lets you set them without a "too many" error. So, for example, it might say there are 10 front and 10 back, and let you place 10 IDF bosses in the front and 10 ghouls in the back. But then when you go to play it - no ghouls appear because in fact, there are only 10 spawn points total.

They added a couple of Cimereroan maps awhile ago that have front/middle/back and the COT floating island does too. That’s all off the top of my head, unless you count the winter map, which has an interior so works with it.

I just published a new arc for the first time in many moons. The short version is that a few folk who had played All That Glimmers, really liked the Neo Tokyo groups and wanted to see more of them. I didn't want to start something about Primal invading or befriending Neo Tokyo so was stumped for ideas, until I instead thought about writing for the Goldside character who ends his or her time in the Praetorian arcs and wants something to do on their way to 50. So this merges the premise behind how I integrated Neo Tokyo into a new path to it, starting in Night Ward. It is three arcs. Neo Praetoria 1: Night Ward... Diabolic Changes - Arc ID: 60478 After completing The Magician's quest, Sir Agnan of the Black Knights has need of your help. A new threat jeopardizes the balance of power in Night Ward. (Goldside series that continues the Praetorian story, picking up after The Magician's arc in NIght Ward.) Neo Praetoria 2: First Ward... Hamidonic Changes - Arc ID: 60742 The Angels of Mercy you saved want to grant you boons to help you escape Night Ward and reach Neo Praetoria by traveling through First Ward. [SFMA] Neo Praetoria 3: Warburg... Warburg Never Changes - Arc ID: 63157 After the assault on Neo Praetokyo, Ma Soong wants to shut down the portal on Prime earth that broke through her wards. Professor Echo has a portal open and ready for you to head to Prime Earth and end the threat in Warburg. Hope you have fun giving any of it a whirl, and as always, very open and appreciative of feedback to help me polish the story I put together. (A little worried I went a little clue crazy and tried to stuff too much detail in - but trying to keep things tighter than some of my other series.) And, if you're so inclined, I appreciate you being generous with stars in its early days while kinks may be being unkinked.

My approach Minions - I tend to keep the minions as mostly offense - no buffs or debuffs, and unless there is a reason for a special armor or a blaster secondary, I often just use invulnerability and the non toggle powers as a secondary to give them light resistances with no effect on appearance. Maybe a Dull Pain. LTs - are usually more interesting with controller/defender types showing up with buffs and debuts Bosses - vary based on the theme of the mob but tend to be offense again and have an armor set to go with Allies - tend to make them EBs so they survive if there is a big group - and they tend to only appear when there are AVs - but I am not all that consistent on that. In an arc I am working right now I might have some Lts who allies Like Cranebump I go for 100% so people can get the full XP - however, on Homecoming, they bumped up what was needed to get to 100% making custom mobs tougher than before - I think this was related to farming.

Alright again 100% spoiler - but I am loving the summarization of a story arc using ChatGPT. Here was the first pass: Then it occurred to me I could ask it to do it in second person past tense and got something much more like a regular souvenir. Unfortunately my OZ arc is too big to open because of all the customs. I time out trying to open it so this will not make it in there - so if you ever play it - consider the above your souvenir. 🙂

So I hardly ever take the time to write Souvenir Clues. By the time I am ready for that, I am usually kind of "written-out" If I have one in there, it was usually written months later. But I had an idea - ChatGPT is great at summarizing things, so I copied the text from the mission file and in seconds had a summary. This of course is 100% spoiler, but thought I would share...