huang3721

I suggest using Lucky Six Casino because it has a small bar (Unique Maps > Casinos > Lucky Six). Set the enemy group to empty. Then, set Dean as an escort (you'll need a custom critter of Dean if he's unavailable in the standard critter list). An escort has more dialogues than an ally or a rescue detail (inactive, rescued, and arrived at the destination). Don't forget to set his arrived behavior to follow. The default setting will force Dean to leave you when he reaches his destination, ruining the dinner. The question is how to make it work. Lucky Six Casino only supports one non-violent detail, which we've already spent on Dean. The other two are for boss, ambush, and patrol. The Casino also supports 11 collectibles. Maybe set them so that when you collect something, the game writes a dialog in the clue tab (?) Anyway, good luck with the dinner.

True that. Seeing all of the hard work ruined is beyond annoying. When creating characters for Daughters of Gaia, I encountered a bug where the game increased my toon's height to maximum and randomly assigned colors to her costume. It happened when I went back and forth between body and costume tabs while editing my custom character. My hunch is that these errors in *.critter files add up and eventually ruin the villain group and the story arc they are attached to.

I make a custom group where each member has a different name. I also slightly vary their height and their color. The group has 54 bosses, 162 lieutenants, and 324 minions. In total, there are 540 toons. Yet, it only takes about 63% of the size limit. I was going to squeeze another 230 toons into the group (770 characters for a 90% size limit). Unfortunately, the interface lagged after I added the group to my story. Adding or editing each character in the text box takes a full second; typing "Thank you for rescuing me, $name!" quickly became a nightmare. The mission itself went smoothly. As far as I know, there were no weird changes in costumes or colors. So, in a practical sense, there is no need to worry about the size limit unless you include hundreds of unique toons in your story.

I made a short arc utilizing this gameplay mechanic:

Do you mean Infernal's Demon? Select "Infernal Demon (45-54)" in the Enemy Group drop list. You can color default model by pressing "Edit Standard Character" button right below Character drop down list. Select Cimeroran (35-54), Sybil Bramlet, then edit her appearance. Editing standard character doesn't bloat the file. If I am not mistaken, Cimeroran civilians aren't available as in standard character. You need to create custom characters.

One of AE's quirks is that an unguarded captive counts as a completed, even though you haven't rescued him. So the captive will complete itself as soon as you spawn into a map if you set your mission enemy group to "Empty" and the captive surrounding group to "None." Imagine this scenario: somebody creates an ambush and links it to the unguarded captive. The result? AE will trigger the ambush when that guy enters the map. Imagine another scenario: you create six unguarded captives and link each captive to an ambush. Link those six captives to a collectible, and you get a booby trap. There are a few caveats: The ambush spawn location isn't predictable. Sometimes, the ambush spawns right next to you. Sometimes, it spawns next to the exit door. Keep an eye on the detail limit for each map section. For example, a tiny Praetorian warehouse map supports one detail at the front and middle. Going over the limit may prevent the ambush from starting. For an example, please check the attached *.storyarc file. multiple_ambushes.storyarc

The war has dragged on for 20 years, and during that time, the hostilities between us and them mainly revolve around their transport ships dropping explosive eggs and our civilians raiding their downed mothership. (Both are as effective as they sound.) Human-Rikti war is the dumbest war ever waged in the universe. Let's declare a truce and end this stupid war before we end up as the laughingstock of the whole universe.

The soldiers went to the infirmary deep inside the mothership. Like humans, the Rikti have teleporters, but theirs are much more advanced. With this technology, the Rikti can repel human attacks without any casualties. MSR (Mutual Survival Review) serves as a training session for both sides. Yup, humans got their teleportation tech from the Rikti.

Nevermind. I found it.

I can't find the plaque. It's a history plaque, isn't it? I am going to visit Paragon City once again tonight. I've spent too much time going back and forth between Praetoria and Pocket D. ^Maybe the Corp can't disrupt its operations during the transition to newer hardware.

It is up to you. The game doesn't explicitly tell us the year. IMO, judging by the Rikti War's effect on the populace, it was probably around 2004. My hunch is all the post-Praetoria War events took place within the first decade of the 21st century. However, Homecoming devs add their own story from issue 27 onwards, so maybe the year is closer to the 2020s. Who knows?

Sorry for being "that guy" again. I don't find any statement in the AMA from any dev that equates Incarnates as gods. Incarnate power can't move on its own. The devs liken the power to static electricity rather than a sentient being. When a powerful entity perishes, other entities can gain the power by giving it the path of least resistance toward themselves. I'd say the transfer happened in Merulina's case. The Leviathan was the most compatible vessel compared to other Shapers. Without a vessel to contain it, the power will lay dormant until it dissipates. The AMA: Lore AMA - Unofficial Homecoming Wiki

According to Marchand, Hamidon killed Shadow Hunter. Tyrant revived him in the Emperor's Sword incarnate story arc.

I have one who started in Praetoria and the "double" from Primal Earth. They are far from alike. The difference was due to the destruction of Shroud City and the Hamidon War, changing the Praetorian's family tree compared to the Primal's. Different families led to diverging upbringings. One trained to serve the Emperor from an early age, while the other had a more normal childhood, fighting evil only after the first Rikti War a decade later. The only similarity between these two characters is they don't like the celebrities. Athanasia loathed Reese (and the Top Dogs) and joined the PPD to avoid seeing his face too often. On the other side of the rift, Namanari wasn't happy with Freedom Phalanx's handling of the war.

I made a script to do "/copychat [tab]" every 0.1 seconds, then parse the text inside the clipboard. Using that parsed text, my toons would react whenever someone hit them with sleep, fear, knockback, etc. They would also react when their health falls too low. I wanted my toons to become more talkative and let me do "a one-man RP". Let's say, I would become their mission control. I wrote a dozen monologues to be randomly blurted when certain events happen. One problem is they become repetitive fast. Each level has dozens of mobs, so either I have to write a hundred monologues or make my toons less likely to yell something when an event happens (p<=10%). Also, I suppose a Praetorian surviving the horror of war would react differently to a fresh graduate of Steel Canyon University when both of them get hurt. That means another set of monologues for each toon and each event. So, I quickly abandoned the idea. Anyway, since the thread is about programming, is there any way to read the memory while playing CoH? Not writing, just reading. For example, it would be great to know the location of all critters on a map. No more playing hide and seek in the Orangebagel or those mine caves. I am an amateur coder (emphasis on amateur), but I know a bit of C/C++, Python, and BASIC. edit Oh, you were talking about our character's ability to program, not real-life examples. Whoops, sorry. edit again because I've already commented, I guess I should write these: I think writing a program is dull. Admiring paintings or statues is one thing. Watching the artist paint or sculpt the art from beginning to completion is another thing. So, the RP may need some artistic liberties. People can make it relatively fast and easy. A superhero (robot?) can write and compile on the fly. Re-compiling and restarting the OS (during a hostile base takeover) happens fast enough that it can still fight off the intruders. Even better, they may be able to upload the program into foreign hardware and force it to run the program (similar to the Independence Day movie). IMO, the hardest part is figuring out the audience. How many artistic liberties before the act of programming turns into magic and ruins the RP?

Even if the story makes no sense or barely exists, a good design can save it. I think this is where we differ in opinion. I (and probably some authors here) don't speak English. It is unfair for me to focus on storytelling (using a language I don't quite understand) while reviewing. A good level design, however, transcends storytelling. Anyone can appreciate a good design. A challenging design, IMO, is even better. I don't believe in Kyksie's assessment because the "time waster" is, in my opinion, the best part of the second mission. The mission objective is similar enough to the previous objectives to give a sense of repetition. However, it throws a curve ball by putting clues in the dialogue instead of the mission objective. I rarely see authors using AE's bugs like this. Should the dialogue fail, we'll have a standard outdoor map scenario. It still gives a sense of progressive difficulty through the arc. On the other hand, make the second mission objective easier, and we'll have three similar objectives back to back, spanning two outdoor maps. Not good. Also, the author made an unfortunate error on the first mission. IMO, this error made Kyksie's time-waster statement baffling. By all means, Kyksie should spend more time on the first mission than the second. It's true, but this one is weird. Why do people want to defeat all objectives in a single run? Some objectives are optional and more challenging, so a failure or two should not be a big deal. Feel unsatisfied? Try again next time! Bring more friends! Bring their friends' friends! Lower the difficulty settings! (The last one is more effective than complaining in the forum.)

My hunch is that many players take a glance at their mission, run to their next objective, kill anything in between, and repeat until they complete the whole arc. Such way of problem solving often results in this gem: The time waster (Spoiler):

I ran this story arc solo as a blaster with the difficulty set to (+0/x1). The story arc has three medium maps and one outdoor map. Each map has one or two objectives and is quite plain (no linked, timed, or failable objectives). IMO, the arc is for anyone looking for a relatively short story. All enemies are custom critters. Most of the challenges come from ambushes and the optional EBs/AVs hiding in the map. Since those EBs/AVs are optional, the difficulty remains flat through most of the arc, assuming no accidental bumping with said EBs/AVs. I like the optional EBs/AVs as an additional challenge in this simple arc. The author wrote several homages to pulp fiction. Interestingly, they put a good portion of them as NPC information, which means someone will miss those if they kill the enemies without checking the info boxes first. This results in a seemingly barren story arc. Also, as others have pointed out, the story arc still needs polishing and spellchecking. Thanks for writing this AE. It's enjoyable despite the errors.

Not really. From 2023, 20 people (discounting Ultimo, Ankylosaur, Darmian, and you) posted their story arc(s) in this forum. Only eight people didn't get a review (60% got at least one). Whenever people post their arcs here, they are more likely to get a review or feedback. Why should we feel honored by this guy? You do a much better review than him. Why?

Out of three replies, only one guy ran this arc, and even that guy couldn't do a decent review. Of course, there is a plot. The OP wrote it at the very top of this thread. Here it is, just in case you missed it: What makes it well done? Is it because the mission was easy enough for you? Is this AE good for solo or team play? What is the most memorable thing from this mission? Does this mission emphasize story-telling? Is the mission funny? Are there easter eggs? How about the difficulty? How about its length? Is it farmable? What do I need to know as a prospective player? In your opinion, is there any concrete way to make it better aside from fixing typos and adding text? I hope Guy#2 will play this soon and have something better for this thread. (Assuming he wants to do a review and not merely quoting people). Last but not least, Guy #3 wrote a wall of text that has nothing to do with this AE. Crane, you are the best reviewer here. What happened? Also, is this necessary? Why should anyone in this forum feel honored by his review? IMO, his review is often shallow and lacking. Is he the grand arbiter of mission architects? He doesn't even practice what he preached.

My next mission was in Terra Volta (beat up 30 Freaks), so I went to the gate entrance and clicked one of the guards. Nothing happened. I checked my cursor and realized maybe I clicked him wrong. I moved it slightly downward. It didn't register. I hovered my pointer over his chest, his kevlar, his belt. Still, nothing happened. How about his shield? Nope. Then, I tried his "lower part..."

IMO, the fbsa wiki is very good for this purpose. People can write a very detailed origin story without concern about character limits. In-game bios should be brief, however, as people often only have limited time to read those things.(Usually while waiting for the rest of the team to show up, queuing for tf, etc)

My second attempt to understand whatever the OP has written up there: IMO, since the OP doesn't explain much, it would be much better if the OP just draw two tables. One for mana colors and one for "mostly" mana colors.

It reminds me of that old cartoon opening sequence: Long ago, the Fire Nation lived in harmony. Then, everything changed when Fire Nation attacked itself... Or, something like that.

Longbow's purpose is to counter and destroy Arachnos, while Vanguard's is to protect Earth from alien/interdimensional incursions. They can't do much against an unaligned, super-powered American lunatic hell-bent on doing nasty things. (Usually, this is where FBSA steps in). Hero Corps is more or less an Auction House. They match Supers with people or governments willing to pay for their service. They also have a global reach (something that Freedom Corps is lacking). If I'm not mistaken, aside from the Freedom Corps, no other entities have the same capability as the Hero Corps. I don't think they are redundant. Maybe because they don't show up often in the later part of the game, they seem superseded. Just leave them alone until the HC Team can figure out a story or two featuring those guys.