[Villainous OR Heroic] [25-34] Robolution - Redside Arc ID: 25870 | Blueside Arc ID: 27314

[Ankylosaur]

Orb Weaver Zane (Agent Zychowski) has left you a message. He wants to speak with you about a mission to recover stolen Arachnos (Longbow) technology. It's never a good idea to ignore an Orb Weaver, (Longbow Agent) is it? [SFMA] This arc takes place after the events of the Ernesto Hess Task Force.

 

----

Originally published this days before the shutdown was announced, it definitely is complete, but something I may still refine so feedback is welcome.

 

It also lent itself to having two versions, red and blue. It took some re-writing, but by trading out the contact, the mcguffin, and swapping the first map's with a red version with a blue version of the same location, plus a few other little tweaks, I was able to make a blue version from the red.  

 

Spoiler

 

SPOILERISH

I loved the MM robots and some of the main mobs in here and put together this story include the robots as allies and explore the whole robot manufacturing thing. In short, someone is selling robots to all the gangs in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles and you have to find out who and why. Some fun mechanics and custom mobs in this one, I also tried to use some interesting outdoor locations that don't come up often in arcs but that do make good sense in this story. Outdoor locations are always a bit of a challenge to use because there is no front, middle, and back to position enemies, which forces the author to be a bit more creative with how it unfolds.  

 

I still have a little work to do here and there but its 99% how I want it.

 

 

Feedback welcomed and encouraged!

Edited May 9, 2020 by Ankylosaur

[MTeague]

If only it were possible to use CL4P-TP units.

[Kyksie]

The contact is Orb Weaver Zane, who says that even though I don't know him, he knows all about me, prompting Kyksie to check her shower for cameras again. Zane tells me that a prototype robot has been stolen, and he needs someone "loyal to Arachnos but not of Arachnos" to find it, which narrows the pool down to me and the hotdog vendors in Cap.

 

I head out to Siren's Call and defeat a Freak named "Bottomizer", which sounds a bit homoerotic. He doesn't know anything about the prototype, but hmmmm, why are there Sky Raiders here? Then, off to the Sky Raider offshore base, where I 'liberate' some technology, and find a robot who joins me once I find it's controller. I name it Herbie.

 

Pieing together the clues, Zane deduces that the robots are being made by the Rogue Robots on Striga Isle, and sold to villain groups across Paragon and the Rogue Isles. Kyksie ventures off to the Striga map and finds a huge robot sales exposition, with representatives from the Council, Crey, the Family, and Up-n-Away Burgers buying battle robots. I'm soon joined by two battle drones and one assault bot; I name then George, Curley and Lenny. Zane needs to examine the robots, so I lead them back to the Arachnos Flyer. As we approach the handoff point, Curley pauses and looks up. "These people, they're not going to take me apart... right?" Kyksie is unable to meet his robotic gaze, turning away and trudging back to the transport.

 

We need to find the prototype, so Kyksie heads to a warehouse, gathers a small army of robot allies whom I name after the Partridge Family, and pummels Col. Duray, then a 'volta'. Oddly, Danny and Suzanne turn hostile at that point but do not attack me. After that, Zane pieces together the clues and determines that Vandal is behind the robot army. I like arcs where the contact is more than "duhhhh, bad guys over there". Anyway, the player heads out to the base and encounters Hess, who is now a brain in a robot body, them clobbers "Vandal II", also a robotic brain. Lots and lots of non-required glowies provide background.

 

Robolution is a very well done arc, with excellent writing, a plausible plot, and lots of attention to detail. My only real issue is that some of the dialog is... odd. For example, at one point Zane greets the player with "Goodness, $name. You really have uncovered something deliciously intriguing here!" And, when low on health, Col. Duray shouts "My oh my!" Of all the possible things that Duray might say during combat, "My oh my!" is not high on the list. I was almost expecting him to exclaim "Heavens to Murgatroyd!" upon defeat.

Edited November 26, 2019 by Kyksie

[Ankylosaur]

Thank you for the playthrough and feedback! Was thrilled to find it had been played and glad you enjoyed it. (You encountered the bug with Danny and Suzanne rebelling where they don't actually attack you. 😕 ) I tried to find a voice for Zane but may have missed the mark there on him and Col. Duray. Thanks again - made my day to read your experience of it,

 

I also have another villainous arc "Condemning Croatoa" if Kyksie is looking for more lore-related Arachnos work. And if you are looking for any blueside missions - would love to hear your experience for any of my arcs published under my ankylosaur account. 

 

[Kyksie]

Condemning Croatoa, #17552

 

The contact is Veluta Lunata, who used to be one of Ghost Widow's top lieutenants, but fell out of favor when she caught her in a janitor's closet with all three of Black Scorpion's technicians. It seems that Arachnos has had it's eye on Croatoa of late, and wants to drive the ghosts and other supernatural creatures away so they can exploit it, kinda like Scooby-Doo in reverse. Most people know that Kyksie started out as a crimefighter, but it's been over six months since she was let go from the Freedom Phalanx Power Hour, and with money running short, she decides that 'hero' and 'villain' are just words.

 

 

The Fir Bolg and the Tuatha have been fighting each other forever, but are now in peace talks, so we need to defeat the Eochai. Kyksie first enters a museum and steals a proton accelerator or something, then goes onto a farm, gathers up some Lost Soul allies, and smashes Eochai into small piles of putrid debris.

 

Now, we need to capture Katie Hannon's soul. Kyksie first ventures into the countryside to smash a cauldron and burn some witches, then into a cave to defeat Mary MacComber and capture Katie, with Veluta's help. Finally, it's time to sink Croatoa into the spirit world. Kyksie heads to Salamanca, smashes a mailbox and a taco stand that were really magical wards, then defeats Ashley McKnight and War Witch and some other dudes. Upon returning, Croatoa has sunk into the spirit world, making room for a new strip mall and Starbucks.

 

Condemning Croatoa is another well done arc, with solid writing and no time-wasters. My only nitpick is that, like the previous arc by this author, some of the dialog is a bit odd. Ashley McKight says "How do you like my pals, bub?" at one point, and War Witch says "Ah'm pretty near invulnerable when ah'm blastin'", or something like that.

 

Edited December 17, 2019 by Kyksie

[Ankylosaur]

Love Kyksie's mission logs! 

 

I was proud of a few things in Croatoa - the fact that you could actually solo a GM and I had a lot of fun with all the triggered events and some custom lore-based mobs and heroes you fight like the extra witches, midnight squad, Montague and Warwitch . Looks like I need to work on their dialog though - trying to put some personality in through their word choices, but it appears like it missed the mark.

 

Should Kyksie ever want to get back to some blueside work and her Freedom Phalanx roots, Rularularian is probably my best arc with The Serpent Beyond the Horizon being a close second (though I worry the contact / dialog for Serpent will not sit well with Kyksie). Based on her screenshot - Kyksie is right in range of those level-wise. 

 

Again - love hearing about Kyksie's journeys - thanks for sharing and exploring my arcs (and for the feedback)!

Edited December 10, 2019 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

Republished as "Robolution (Red-side)".

 

I had always toyed around with the idea of doing both a blue and red version of this same arc. I was able to change the contact from Arachnos to Longbow, swap the Arachnos Siren's Call for the other Siren's Call map, change the McGuffin from an Arachnos Destroyer to a Longbow Caraphract, make some text variations, and publish a step-child heroic version while keeping the basic story viable.

 

So now there is also a "Robolution (Blue-side)".

 

Go save the day heroes! (and those who just want to explore the variant for the variant's sake.)

[Ankylosaur]

Moved the arc to my main again, losing some 5 star reviews but gathering it under one account. New arc ID: 25870  

 

Someone has already played it and given it 5 stars - so off to a good start!

 

That player also gave me great feedback and I added some things to provide better direction to players trying to find the Robot Field Testers in mission 1, through both the mission pop-up and the Nav text.

Edited May 1, 2020 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

Refined and republished the blueside version and added the arc id to the title. 

[Ankylosaur]

Was looking for old advice feedback to try to further polish, and came across this from the Mission Handyman. Pretty neat these are still out there somewhere...

 

http://web.archive.org/web/20120904230318/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showpost.php?p=4349835&postcount=92

[Ankylosaur]

Decided to update this a little bit to make the penultimate finale more exciting. I removed the ally in mission 4 that made it a little too easy, and took some of your agency and purpose away.

 

I also updated all the custom Skyraider mobs to give them mechanical wings. They had been flying with just boots - and though they look less like the originals with the wings, they make more sense.

[Ankylosaur]

Now that I found that great Aircraft hanger map (thanks @Darmian) I updated mission 4 of this. It was a good improvement which caused some other changes and furthered some of the changes I made a few weeks ago. Together it makes a better mission 4 experience in a more related environment than before. 

 

I'm also going to kill the Blueside version. It was really more of an authoring exercise than anything - to tweak a few things for the other side, but I think in the end it just felt flat. I'll share those few tweaks - though of course its spoilerish - but am not really thinking anyone is worried about that.  

 

Spoiler

 

I decided to play with a blue-side version, because the main enemy was sort of neutral to both the blue and red. It meant replacing a few things to switch it to the other side. If you play the red-side version, here is what was different in the blue:

• The Contact: An Arachnos Orb Weaver was swapped to a Longbow agent and consequently all references to the people you are working for were swapped too.
• The mcguffin: is an Arachnobot Destroyer Prototype. This is a unique EB unit, but Longbow has their own EB unit that could be stolen for its tech - a Cataphract - so swapped it.
• Mission 1: The map is in Siren's call starting in an Arachnos base. Because there is another Sirens call map that starts you elsewhere, I could just swap these to give it a more blue entry point.
• Mission 3: I bring in the Arachnos Flyer as your ally as a closing note, but its not important - just removed it.
• Mission 4: Where that McGuffin is.

And that's it. Easy to do - but not as solid a story for the blueside and not enough significant difference to really warrant a different version.

 

 

Edited September 2, 2020 by Ankylosaur

[Darmian]

Well I can't say it made a difference to me since I hadn't experienced it before you swapped it out but it was a damn good arc. Plus one of the best uses of the Striga bridge I've seen.  I've used it and it is a [insert swearword of choice] to get things to spawn where you'd like without overpopulating the map.  Kudos.

[Ankylosaur]

Robolution on Twitch!

 

Many thanks to MollyMauk76 for continuing to explore AE stories on Sundays.

 

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1729820890

[ZamuelNow]

Well, on to the most nitpicky of typos...

 

Spoiler

Mission 1 clue
"I bet it's them Sky Raiders. They know mega-loads bout bots. They sold us these cool metal dudes that I am testing out. It's like everyone's getting these little metal dudes, dude! You know, to spread the chaos!"
The "I am" sounds weirdly formal for a member of the Freakshow, especially since he uses contractions elsewhere.  Not truly incorrect, just feels like "I'm" sounds slightly better (or "I was" and make it past tense).

 

Mission 4 failure
The bots were so cheap, no organization could do without them..
You used an ellipsis with only two periods instead of three.  Probably the most nitpicky of things but it's something I tend to notice.

 

Speaking of Mission 4, I failed it since I was calling myself smart by using a Stalker and trying to avoid picking up allies.  That was wholly on me, especially since I've been back to the game only so long.  Good arc regardless.  Only possible comment on the substance of the arc is that warehouse maps with the airplane rooms can have close spawns...but it does fit the theme.