Ankylosaur

Absolutely, but it also seems plausible enough that it's a cover. I mean - no one else needs an environmental suit... "Oh hey Resistance friends, I came up with this awesome and totally unique environmental suit with energy powers, but it's just for me. There is no way I can replicate these weapons for anyone else to wear and help our cause to overthrow Cole. Sorry about that." or "I'm covered head to toe in this environmental suit that obscures my appearance so I can use these awesome energy powers. There is no way that I am actually a Nictus possessing someone that you might recognize if I did not have this helmet and mask on at all times." But Helix is not the only mob that uses the Kheldian light powers in game. The Drudges and the Polar Lights do too. So yeah, it could be because of an intern, or economy/budgets for new power art, but for me anyway, the more interesting angle is she could be a Nictus infiltrating Praetoria before the fall...

Spent some time polishing the 1.x series - namely Missing in Mercy, continuing on the theme of better integrating the ex-Praetorians who were broken out of Refugee island by Recluse for some new "Destined Ones." Also refined who you are fighting here and there to better foreshadow future events. I'm also slowly taking the time to write souvenirs for the arcs to meet a request from @Take One a hundred years ago, 🙂 The key refinements

Yeah I came to the same conclusion, that none were native; part of why there is just one. Given the Nictus’ penchant for conquering, and the game’s for time travel, and interdimensional travel, my little story line justifes it… And obviously my story is not canon, but it’s just to illustrate that in this universe there’s loads of little hooks that you can use and justify to explore new paths, well within the confines of the lore.

True - it's all about good prompt writing. But it was fun to paste in that prompt an try it out. There were a few typos in the prompt that needed correcting, and as a game its like a random dungeon generator, but it was pretty amazing it worked at all. Oh and I tried it a couple of times and even the "UI" changed for things like "Check Inventory" And every time I pasted it in, its first response was "I can't do a MUD" paste it again and it begins. ChatGPT must lack a little confidence. 😉 But given a nudge it plays along...

Build your own MUD!

Yes, you can right click highlighted text to use Font Colors in contact text, mission intro/exit bubbles and clues - loads of places. Any standard HTML hexadecimal codes work, but some are more readable than others - even in the ones on the right click menu. Explore to your Hearst content! (I tend to just used some of the named colors - lighter the better in most cases but not all) https://htmlcolorcodes.com/ I have tried colors in dialog boxes and they worked with unpredictable results, meaning, sometimes without rhyme or reason, so I gave up on that.

I always presumed so. I’ve been exploring a few of the open threads with AE (Gold Brickers vs Aeon, First Warders reclaiming Astoria, a different Scirocco take, Awakened and The Council) and have a kheldian plotline called All That Glows. Involves the whole Arakhn and Requiem council schism too and how a Kheldian made it to Praetoria if you want to see one pass at it.

So great to see Enigineria's journey here. Great pics and storytelling as always - poor thing stuck in this magic plot when its really outside her area of expertise but she's a trooper! Some thoughts... The Stray - I needed someone to fill the role she does, and when I thought of her - well it all fit together so well! She knows the Night Ward and the Drudge and magic and seems like the type who would put what she knows to use to gain an advantage for herself in a new world. Definitely not the last you'll see of Ksenia. Was fun to try to capture her personality here. Desdemona / Vanessa - There is a version of Vanessa in AE that does not have the mask, so managed to work her in here and get her free of it - even though she's just a disincorporated mental essence trapped in the Spirit Realm (or something). Having Vanessa split from Desdemona was half to make the story telling easier so I didn't have to identify which of the two voices was speaking when you encounter her/them. But as you might expect, she plays a role in the All That Glints story that focuses on the Seers in Prime Earth. The Spirit Realm maps - both the office and sewer Astoria maps served as a great way to represent the spirit realm in Astoria. If memory serves, and not that anyone would ever notice, but I think I managed to find the equivalent or very close non-Mot office and non-red sewer for the maps in 2.x where you entered the Astoria versions, but don't hold me to that. I know I looked for them at least. 🙂 And the New Praetorians will definitely have a little traditional Praetorian feast after this is all over and Engineria is top of the guest list.

Hmmm - perhaps I was not feeling inspired? Maybe it will become Plots upon Plots upon Plots... And M5 would clearly be Stray Plots.

A pretty interesting example of AI used for role-play in Skyrim. Super-early example done with a mod but this lets you speak to characters using your voice, which converts it to text, feeds it to ChatGPT that understands Skyrim since all the characters etc are online, and role-plays that character back.

With all the new Stheno weapons that were recently released, I wanted to update my customs in this story that is about the origin of the Snakes. Editing a Dev's Choice is something I try not to abuse, as basically you have to ask a GM to restore it. I think I've done it twice, once was for Nictus Evictus when the new Nictus stuff came out. In the case of "Serpent Beyond the Horizon" the game changed with new weapons, which gave me a chance to improve something too. I've asked to have it restored to a dev's choice, and fingers crossed it will be. I did make a small story change. Back when I published it, Sisters Bramlett and Solaris were AVs in the AE Cimeroran mobs. In one of the Homecoming updates they became bosses instead, and, they added in Airlia (among others). So, I added in Sister Airlia as another Seer who was kidnapped as part of the plot, so that the solo player has some extra support fighting an AV. It actually fit the story well as you uncover a bit of Arachnos' presence in Cimerora in the plot when you encounter Bramlett, so this slipped right in. Though the fight with Bramlett will be easier, having them as bosses against the AV should be more fun than Solaris as an AV ally as she was mighty powerful and kinda rolled over everyone. Anyway, its updated now with the Stheno stuff, and the mobs look better for it. Oh and I fixed the note to self above.

Impressive! Most impressive! With Glimmers at least, the 2.x stuff set up the "magic potential" for the 3.x stuff, and like Glitters, the x.3 arc is always a big finale to the little trio of arcs. This one, 3.2, has a big reveal of a key player in the plot. The next arc is a big turning point where everything that they have been building up comes swinging into play. Who needed all this magic potential to thin the veil? Who lured the Drudge here, and really, why? Excited for you to see it really unfold! On the edge of my seat to experience Engineria's experience of it.

And recolor the standard boss from the standard mob and give it a custom description to match the description in your custom mob. A nuisance... but know this problem well. There are also a few mobs that only show up when selecting bosses, like generic villains, and W.I.S.D.O.M.

This was me trying to do what I could to enter the spirit realm. In this case, one of the carnie maps and one of the city maps are identical except for the back - carnie tents vs graveyard - so tried to use that to my advantage to indicate the shift. (And Noble Savage being captured in the spirit realm again was me just acquiescing to the AE constraints. I have played around with empty maps and empty allies so you can avoid the "they are captured" conceit. But then you get no nav text and have to manually populate lots of stuff. So yeah - it's that he's not stealthy I guess 🙂 )

Made a significant update to All That Gleams 5.0. As only one arc, I never made a separate thread for it, but as the changes were made because of my Glimmers fix, I figured I'd just mention them here. Before the plot was a follow-through to the open thread from Ninjas in the Wind, and you were helping Serafina find out what happened to Scirocco and Ice Mistral. That answer is now integrated into 4.2 Ninjas in the Wind, which means the whole motive had to change, and with that, the contact. So now you are working with the Dark Watcher. Neo-Tokyo wants to normalize relations with Primal Earth, in part to get some help with all these Primal Earth groups who are scavenging, smuggling, trespassing or challenging their control of Cole's abandoned city. I know that the All that Glitters, Glimmers, Glows, and Glints series are daunting to dig into because they are so long, (though the shorter Glows and Glints may be less so). Its tough to know if playing them will be worth your time. If you want to count All That Gleams as a standalone, and the above as prequels, it could be an interesting way to introduce yourself to the outcomes and then maybe explore a thread that piques your interest to figure out how it came to be. Neo Tokyo Arcs? Now that this new version is done, can't help but think of many missions you could do in Neo Tokyo, and I know a few people have asked about that... Maybe one day... The challenge lies with who to focus on. On the one hand, people enjoyed fighting Neo Tokyo because of the mobs. Maybe it's one of the groups invading so now it's more redside? Maybe each is a standalone pushing one of the earlier plots further forward? I have several little ideas, but not one big one, yet. Do the New Praetorians return home? We'll see, but I will count it as a new series as all of ATG is done, and the game world changed because of it. These would be adventures in this new world order.

I write for soloists primarily as I count myself as pretty lucky if even one person plays something. 🙂 Having said that, after Adventures in Wonderland became a Dev's choice, a number of people commented about things in there over time that have me trying to better accommodate teams in my thinking. Defenders - Most of that has to do with /Defender powers. In there I had a number of "flowers" with /poison and that has melted some tanks. I also had some mobs with Flash Arrows and stacking that people found annoying. In general I try not to be annoying with mobs. Bosses - I often only had a single boss in a mob as soloers would rarely encounter them. Still holds true for some, but I think more about boss variety now. Escorts/Allies - I tend to over-rotate on the health of these now and use EBs or AVs to ensure they can survive when traveling with a team. If custom, I limit their attacks so the solo player hopefully has to do a little more than just kite them around with them, but EB and AV allies certainly make it a lot easier for soloists. Giant Monsters - I throw these in for flavor only if appropriate to a map. They are never required but teams seem to enjoy them. And then there is keeping teams informed of the story. For that I don't have a great solution. One of the things I struggle with is clues. I used to put in a lot of clues to help teams and just to keep people informed in case they missed something. But they are a little immersion breaking and flow breaking as you have to stop and read them - especially if they don't reveal new things themselves. So then I backed way off, but after watching Valeyard's twitch play through, the dialog of toons is often completely missed, so now I am thinking they are important? Not sure what to do about clues.

When you have a group of "Storm Monks" in the "Order of the Winds" and CoH releases a Storm Powerset, well, things will change... The Glimmers story is already pretty tight and tidy as a story so very little changes in this series, but this gave me a chance to make some updates to All That Glimmers 4.2: Ninjas in the Wind

Great pic (and arc). Always loved this arc, and particularly the mothballed robot prototypes warehouse map. Something very memorable about that scene and super-clever use of these mobs that fit so well into a great story.

ROFL

Thanks @cranebump for pointing this one out. I've tried, over time, to use one of each somewhere in my stories and have learned a few things with them. Here's what I know about GMs. Caveats I tend to use them as extra flavor and not required objectives. Some of this is based on memory and feel - both of which fail me from time to time... All about GMs that I can think of at the moment I believe the only time you can use them is outdoor maps, and not all outdoor maps. (But even some really small ones, like the Praetoria CMF one supports them.) You can only have one GM per mission and they always appear in a single specific spot on each map. I believe the same GM can appear taller or shorter depending on the map. (not 100% on on that) They are listed as having a specific level, but I have always presumed they scale in difficulty to the player level like they do in game. For example, put the level 20 death surge on a level 50 mission and he's not a push over However, there may be quirks as the Eochai, if on a level 50 map, will lob flaming pumpkins that explode and spawn low level fir bolg - which may be a limitation of that mob more than anything. Some might honor some poses. GMs are not part of their core mob, however, a few traditional GMs do also appear as AVs within their mobs Adamastor is in the Banished level 50 mob I think There is a Thorn AV in the Devouring Earth mob. Put him on the eden map and he looks tall like a GM I think. There is a Paladin in the Psionic Clockwork

It's actually a little fitting I released this during Mental Health Awareness month. No shortage of Gerascophobia in this story - that's the serious aspect I mentioned. This real world story I came across during my research was somewhat heartbreaking. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4283456/#:~:text=Gerascophobia is a fear of,and physiological components [2].

I think one way to accomplish people walking around that feels easy and at least for me is good enough is to add the "Non-combat" and "Single" options to Patrol Alignment menu in Patrols.

Based on the continued attraction of Adventures in Wonderland, I offer up the third (and last) in my little "Adventures in" series; a series where each story has little more in common than a name and the public domain. This one is very different than the others. Much more intimate. Mostly smaller maps, with less emphasis on the fantastic nature of the creatures like Oz and Wonderland and romps through big expansive outdoor locations. Probably plays faster too. I think compared to Oz, which spanned a few books that likely fewer folk know, this will be more recognizable, but is a very different take. And the actual book, you may not really know, but I cover that stuff in the story. It's also more serious. Was not planning on that, but then I read about a take on Peter Pan which made for a much more gripping and impactful premise. I have not read Liosel's Peter Pan prequel comic, but his core idea inspired. My story takes place now, 100+ years later so is not related, but it certainly is anchored by asking the same questions of why there is a Neverland and how did Peter get there. Anyway - not for kids. Eager for feedback as always!

That's always been the big future of work question... What is everyone going to do... And actually I'm sure they'll be a pendulum swing and a made by humans movements, etc But by creatives, yes, not just artists/entertainers - engineers, architects, lawyers, all sorts. AI works well within constraints I am sure it will be able to design a building to code lickety split. Generative AI is already being used to design parts to meet performance specs in ways a person would never think of Lawyers basically research and compile info to draw a conclusion or craft documents based on research to protect you. Seems right in its wheelhouse. Lots of unknowns ahead for all of us...

Oh - but I am sure you bring your own flavor of storytelling that your folk at the table love! However for video games, imagine how much more freeform conversations can be with NPCs, if you can talk to an NPC completely freeform about absolutely anything in-game, but only if you use a few key words or phrases will they give you a quest or will you illicit the right clues. The devs can choose to have buckets of knowledge and have different NPCs know different buckets, and even levels of detail in each. e.g., Sunstorm knows a lot about general events, is an expert in Kheldians, knows a good deal about the Council, but knows very little about Arachnos, and speaks differently to you if he recognizes you as a Kheldian. Of course the above only matters until an AI can completely freeform an entire world and plot... It's why all these AIs are like the Industrial Revolution for creatives.