[Neutral] [25-54] Adventures in Wonderland - Arc ID: 28330

[Ankylosaur]

Alice Liddell could use your help at the University library in Croatoa. Wait, was that THE White Rabbit that just ran by?

 

 

----

Yes its that Wonderland - ah the joys of public domain content.... 

 

Very eager for feedback if you choose to explore Wonderland!

It is chock-full of custom mobs, yet the standard mobs that are mixed in can span a large range, so the mission is open to many levels. 

(A couple trivial quirks, like the White Rabbit does not always flee despite settings) but I think I have found everything.  

Edited July 6, 2020 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

Since this is based on a story that everyone knows, I thought I would share some of the characters inside, but then I realized there are file size limits - so will hold off on screen shots. Instead I'll just share some of the mobs and design ideas.

 

Spoiler

 

The Red Kingdom

In case you don't recall your Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass stories, they each have a Queen at the end, though they are different queens: The Queen of Hearts (the playing card) and The Red Queen (the chess piece).  Because of this, and the lack of through-line or real antagonist in the first book, adaptations often combine them. I did too. It was easy to work off of chess pieces and work in a few other unique units too when pulling together this mob. Military types got variations of Black Knight armor while non armored types used variations of CoT outfits. 

 

• Minions: It was easy to just have one minion here, and the Polearm weapon suited them well: Red Pawns - Staff/ invuln
• LTs: I wanted more variety here so worked in Rooks (mace/shield), Bishops (red elec/pain), and cheated and added in Castles (archers)
• Bosses: Because the Red Knight and White Knight (sword/shield) appear in the original stories, they made for good bosses here, but wanted more than one, I also include The Executioner (Titan weapons).
• Unique Bosses: The White Rabbit is the Herald of the Queen of Hearts and The Lion fights for Red against the Unicorn of White, so he fit well too.  Continuing the Card+Chess combo means The Knave found a home with an axe (from the playing card) and The Red King had a sword (like the suicide King of Hearts). The Red Queen is Red elec/elec, which worked doubly well as the White side could use purple elec for their counterparts.

 

The Creatures of Wonderland

There are so many great references to things in wonderland that the costume creator could handle that is was fun to keep creating creatures.

• The Insects: They were all minions. I included the three Alice encountered: The Bread and Butterfly, the Snap Dragonfly and the Rocking Horse Fly (though rocking here is more air guitar than rocking horse). Based on puns I extended that with a Firefly and a Cold Bug. There is no way to do The Caterpillar, but thankfully metamorphosis made for a great The Butterfly, and a giant monster his toadstool.
• The Plants: Similarly Alice encounters a bunch of talking flowers. I could not quite work in all the originals, but like the Disney movie, I added in ones that worked costume-wise for us: The Tiger Lily, Dandelion, Wolfsbane, Black-eyed Susan, and Rose. A couple of recolored DE fleshed it out with the Mushroom, Toadstool, Tumtum Tree and Togley Wood.
• The Creatures: While the above were mostly Minions, the creatures mentioned in the book and poems gave loads of room to play here with inventive and open ended options for the Borogove, Slithy Tove, Mome Rath, Jubjub Bird and The Bandersnatch.    
• Croquet Party: You may encounter an interpretation of some of the elements from The Queen of Hearts croquet party: Flaming Os, Hedgehogs, and Fish Footmen.
• Unique Creatures/People: And when it came to uniques, there were great options for The Jabberwock, The Gryphon, The Mad Hatter, March Hare, and even The Cheshire Cat - so I had to work them in.

 

•  

 

It was loads of fun to dig through the Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass lore and pull out what I could use while weaving it into the CoH universe. 

 

If you want to explore it, bring a little patience as some of the maps are rambling. But like Alice, it's about the journey and the magical things you meet along the way, not the destination. 

 

Edited June 1, 2020 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

After some feedback to make it a little clearer - renamed it to Adventures in Wonderland and made a few play tweaks (like making the white rabbit not exit the mission but just flee from you) and a few enemy tweaks as well (like making the plants a little taller than the insects, and the croquet mobs a bit tougher).

 

Thanks to those that have tried it - hope it played like a dream!

Edited June 12, 2020 by Ankylosaur

[Jactari]

I was enchanted to meet the white rabbit and his fellows in CoH.

It’s very nice to see a marvellous creation like Alice incorporated to the game.

 

And I even saw some references or names that I didn’t know.
I’ll do it again to check all these details. And maybe post further comments.

To be comprehensive, some of my friends brought with me in the adventures were a little less enchanted, about the story/narrative or the general mood, I’m not sure to remember.
But everybody acknowledged your work on the NPCs !

 

Oh, and is it voluntarily that you changed the Cheshire cat into Chesire cat ? As is, it sounds like desire. :o

 

Anyway, thanks for sharing your Wonderland creation !

Edited July 3, 2020 by Jactari

[Ankylosaur]

Thanks for the playthrough and feedback! It encouraged me to refine it further.

 

I have no good explanation for why I consistently misspelled the Cheshire Cat, but I did, so fixed that - thanks for pointing it out. If you find anything else - let me know!

 

I also spent a little time adding a few of the characters I had left out previously and bolstering the dialog and "life" in the final mission. It's a big map and could benefit from a bit more personality. I expanded on the idea of blending in elements of the Croquet party and added in The Duchess, the Dormouse, and updated The Cook to be more Victorian. I also added in more triggered events with dialog for the battles there to make that mission have more life if players explore and don't just do the core objective. 

 

I also removed unscripted battles and put the Croquet patrols down to just two.

 

Finally, I added in The White Knight and the Knave from the adventures to that point.

Edited July 6, 2020 by Ankylosaur

[DougGraves]

I just played and loved this arc even though I am not an Alice fan.  I've read Wonderland but no Through the Looking Glass.

 

But the characters were great.  Great costumes.  And nice bits of dialog.

 

This is really what I like in an arc.  A simple story I can follow with a lot of details in the missions.  Some large maps, but so much variety in encounters I did not mind.  I cleared the maps to see what characters I had missed.

 

I am so glad you  can make so many arcs on homecoming, more for me to play.

[Darmian]

@DougGraves, @Ankylosaur is prolific, puts the rest of us to shame!  So do dig in to his stuff and enjoy! I particularly enjoyed Robolution, an AE that deserves more love! Check his sig for the arc numbers.

Edited April 29, 2021 by Darmian

[Ankylosaur]

@DougGraves - so glad you enjoyed this!

 

Very fun to make all those costumes and try to weave a story from the Alice world - which is thankfully public domain. 🙂 

 

I've had a few ideas to make M1 a little more interesting (animated objects from the Animus Arcana) but can't modify the arc as it is dev's choice. 

 

Hope you'll consider exploring more! Most of the rest of mine involve more lore connected hooks that are underexplored (and I try to get right 🙂 ).

 

@Darmian - thanks for the kind words. I'm slowly working on a few more but out of slots. I may be pulling some down soon. 🙂

Edited May 2, 2021 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

This arc has been getting a great number of plays, and there are several things that I have wanted to do for, well, years, but the "can't edit a dev's choice" message scared me off

 

 

But I discovered you can if you ask nicely. 🙂 Or rather the devs will kindly reinstate it after you make your edits. 

 

So - I have made a number of edits based on the post arc comment feedback and my own ideas. These are tiny refinements, but hopefully make the experience even better for those that like it.

In case you want to know...

Spoiler

• The contact name wass wrong - was supposed to be Alice Liddell - the OG alice
• In M1, there was nothing to fight - you just collect a glowie and see the white rabbit run by you if you are paying attention (Ally boss flees mechanic). Several people rightly wanted something more to do there, so I created an "Animated Objects" mob made up of animated weapons from the Animus Arcana mob to illustrate magic is going a little wonky. The boss in that mob is already called a Vorpal Sword, so dovetails in almost too nicely - "snicker-snack!"
• In M5, I had used the Cimeroan half castle map - since then, the devs have released the full castle map. I swapped that in. This map also let me put the allies in the front and the Red Queen in the back and include that in the objectives to make it easier for people to find them. Loosely justifying the 5th Column Banner as being a "V" for Victoria as a queen name - as if Carroll had done the red queen as a satire of Victoria.  It's a heckova stretch - but what can you do?
• As a few people pointed out - the white queen ally had a hard time keeping up with you on that castle map. I gave her fly to be better able to follow you, and did the same for the red queen for parity. Plus - fits nicely with the Queens' "move anywhere quickly" chess piece movement.
• A couple of typos. Wish I knew where every single one was - there's always one more hidden somewhere. 🙂
• Someone pointed out that Borogroves are flightless. My mistake! Removed their wings and flight.
• Had a couple of required bosses as objectives that also appear as bosses of the same name in their mob. This caused problems finding the right one to defeat in groups/higher difficulties. So I gave them distinctive names (Fuminous Bandersnatch and Wiffling Jubjub Bird) so you could pick them out if you have a large enough group for bosses to spawn. (Also Uffing White Knight and Manxome Red Knight, and The Duchesses' Cook)
• Added the Mock Turtle in M5 for - ahem - flavor (since he is a reference to Mock Turtle Soup)
• Modified the "Castle" archer mob's costume to be based more on the black knight costume that their other militia-like red kingdom allies sport. Also took away Flashing arrow from them since several people mentioned stacked blinds being a big issue for them in larger groups.
• Updated the Bandersnatch's look just a little - was never quite satisfied there, and I think it is better.

 

• Going to run through it a few time to look for typos.- make sure I didn't break anything with character renames.

 

[Ankylosaur]

After a playthrough or several... 

• Spoiler

  • Added in The Walrus & The Carpenter (Goo goo g'joob!) Who are technically characters in the red queens chess pieces per Lewis Carol... (Bishop and Knight)
  • a few more costume tweaks here and there
  • redid M1 as it was not doing what I wanted with the vorpal sword / white rabbit
  • a typo or two extra eradicated!
  • someone asked why the white rabbit is an enemy so updated his dialog to remind he is the red queens herald (always was of course)
  • went back to the smaller castle map. The fifth column art was just too anachronistic, and the map was unnecessarily big - even more spread out in the newer one. Also reversed the flow since I never liked where the battle takes place on the smaller "Battle Map" - now you first collect allies at the back then fight queen/king on the walls.

   

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

More testing more changes, including a new mob!

 

• Spoiler

  • Played around with the positioning in the Battle Map (M5) yet again. In the end, gathering allies in the back and fighting the queen in the middle makes exploring the walls more optional for those that want to find all the characters (Its an overflow area for the Carpenter, Walrus, Dormouse etc who don't make it into the Middle or Back).
  • Started the Croquet patrols from the Front too to make the grounds feel more crowded.
  • Added in a new mob, "Playing Cards." Figured it was a little tedious fighting the Chess pieces all the time, and because the Knave makes a showing, the cards are already sort of in there. In the book the spades are gardeners (war mace shovel) the clubs soldiers (war mace police baton) and the diamonds couriers. They make their main showing on a specific map where you face the knave and they add some variety.
  • Did something more with the Mock Turtle I had added.

   

 

And now I've asked for it to be returned to Dev's Choice - hurray!

Edited August 17, 2022 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

Twitch playthrough!

 

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1706907301

 

A big thanks to the group that ran through it - was so fun to watch someone experience something I put together. 

 

Unfortunately, I noticed a few little bugs with it, and a typo or two, but you can't modify Dev's choice easily, so I will just have to live with with them.

 

Spoiler

Jotting down here in case I ever do get a chance to update it. (Typo: demesne, Mad Hatter should be a required rescue, some of the white queen's forces con as enemies instead of allies in the final mission. Might want to make the M2 objectives unique.)

 

[TerroirNoir2]

On 1/15/2023 at 4:14 PM, Ankylosaur said:

Twitch playthrough!

 

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1706907301

 

A big thanks to the group that ran through it - was so fun to watch someone experience something I put together. 

 

Unfortunately, I noticed a few little bugs with it, and a typo or two, but you can't modify Dev's choice easily, so I will just have to live with with them.

 

  Hide contents

Jotting down here in case I ever do get a chance to update it. (Typo: demesne, Mad Hatter should be a required rescue, some of the white queen's forces con as enemies instead of allies in the final mission. Might want to make the M2 objectives unique.)

 

Great to see!  I'd recommend they do all of yours!  Of course I'd recommend they do @Darmian's and @cranebump's too, but then I would, wouldn't I?

[Ankylosaur]

On 1/19/2023 at 10:36 AM, TerroirNoir2 said:

Great to see!  I'd recommend they do all of yours!  Of course I'd recommend they do @Darmian's and @cranebump's too, but then I would, wouldn't I?

 

So did I, + @Take One so maybe more will show up there too. 🙂 I got the sense that he will pick up AE stories sometimes Sundays, and, from watching a bit, I think he is live in the wee hours (maybe 1-6 AM) Ontario time.

I would think new content is welcome, but hard to find, so this might help.

[TerroirNoir2]

Did you comment on his feed?  Hello by the way!  I'm hoping to get to your next one this week!

[Ankylosaur]

I did not - he submitted a response while rating the arc and we started chatting through asynchronous tells.

My stories were designed with soloists in mind, so it's great to see them with larger groups to understand the difference. I appreciate that he and the group tend to want to clear everything and find everything too.

[Ankylosaur]

Oh and hello! Looking forward to your run on the the next episode of Glimmers!

 

Been hovering on the edge of my seat for the resolution of the Apocalypse plots and the new intel you unlock, getting a bit closer to what's REALLY going on.

Edited January 21, 2023 by Ankylosaur

[TerroirNoir2]

12 minutes ago, Ankylosaur said:

he submitted a response while rating the arc and we started chatting through asynchronous tells.

Well, let's hope he tries Glitters/Glimmers! 

[Ankylosaur]

Would love to see it one day - but the one shots are much more likely. Glints and Glows are "just" three arcs each, so maybe that's easier to commit to. 🙂

Edited January 21, 2023 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

Based on the popularity of this, working on something else...

 

I had a whole multi-arc series about the coming storm planned - built out the mobs, anchored it in the pvp zones - leveling up through the zone levels - featured a bit of herts of darkness vs shining stars as pvp anchors - felt like I had some neat ideas coming together - some twists, some turns - but - after ages of hammering away at ATG, based on the numbers playing it, another series is not what people are looking for. 🙂

 

So yeah - something else...

 

#analytics #readtheroom 😉

 

Edited March 17, 2023 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

😞

 

Clicked the wrong button. Then confirmed it.

 

Sadly, I went to edit this Dev's choice arc, and knowing I would have to confirm that I wanted to edit a Dev's choice and risk losing that Dev's choice by clicking OK in a dialog box, I clicked OK without paying any attention.

 

I was going to add a suggestion at the end from the main character, who is a Librarian, to try out Adventures in Neverland and Adventures in Oz since those have had only handful of plays when they first launched.

 

And gone are the 787 reviews and 5 stars, eliminating the benefit of suggesting people try something else if they found this one, because they won't ever find this one. 🙂

 

Adding to it, the version I have locally is not up to date. it's not that far off, at least I think it's not, there's no way to know! 🙂 At least the updated characters are in their custom mobs so not that hard to rebuild.

The GMs will kindly reinstate its Dev's Choice status when I republish.
 

Oh well, back down the rabbit hole...

Edited August 31, 2023 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

A funny state to be in. Dev's Choice, Hall of Fame - 0 plays. 🙂

 

In updating it I did minimally updated a few mob's powers. For example, the Rocking Horse Fly now is music control rather than sonic to better emphasize the "Rocking" (its two puns for the price of one.)

Edited September 3, 2023 by Ankylosaur