[Heroic] [40-47] Spycraft & Spidermen - Arc ID: 30367

[Ankylosaur]

Warzone Agent Goddard has new intel that concerns him. His source claims there are female Arachnoids able to reproduce in The Web beneath Warburg! Help him track down and eliminate this new threat before it reaches Paragon City - and spreads! [SFMA]

 

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Sharing this a bit earlier than I normally would - sort of an "Alpha." I will be going through and testing and polishing and re-writing bits over the next few weeks and will keep it as a "Work in Progress," but all the main elements are there - the story and characters, descriptions, clues, and triggered events are all in place but need polish and testing. Feedback welcomed! I also had other names in mind like Friendly Neighborhood Spidermen or the Amazing Spiderwomen, but decided those might mislead as there are no radioactive spiders or young photographic journalists herein.

 

I always thought the Arachnoids were interesting as a story, and even more so that Warburg was. (I regularly worked to grab a nuke back in the day and even ran Goddard missions there for fun sometimes.) Plus there are so many Arachnoid maps that it makes it easy to give a sense of place to the story - which is something I always go for. The Arachnoids are simple as a mob though and as a result I did have a hard time coming up with a premise, until it occurred to me that they are all male! Marshal Blitz still wants to wreck havoc on Paragon City, so bring on the ladies and voila! Rogue Arachnos as a mob had some opportunities to expand too. They are already buying Malta robots to bolster their ranks (and the robots in my Robolution arc) so weaving that all in with the usually-not-seen Orb Weavers was fun too. (I do think that is my first instance of a cross-over arc 😉 ) 

 

If you do explore it, feedback is welcomed and encouraged.

Edited July 8, 2020 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

So I'd call this beta now. Really just cleaning edge cases of text at this point. I went through and polished a great deal and changed how a few things worked based on testing.

 

But this arc really illustrated how important testing is. On the "Warehouse to Arachnoid" maps I found the weirdest bug. Once you are in the Arachnoid caves the mobs disappear - they are there one moment then they fade away. I was going to have a few rescues in the caves, but as you couldn't defeat the captors after they faded - it was pointless so I moved them into the warehouse.

 

I tried a few different versions of those maps but they all behaved the same. In a possible related bug - when I was testing with an MM - my pets kept dropping in and respawning like I had traveled too far from them.

 

In the end I went with one of versions of these maps the smallest Arachnoid cave, just for the flavor and moved a glowie there from the warehouse instead. Mobs still show up and may fade away in the caves but it won't prevent you from finishing the map at least.

 

It shows you can take nothing for granted in AE. 🙂 

 

Open to all feedback - if too tough or unbalanced or missing something or you love it or have ideas to add I am all ears.

 

If you give it a spin I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it and exploring the Warburg and Arachnoid lore. 

Edited July 11, 2020 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

So, I made some significant changes after several playthroughs and think I can call it done now. I think it came out really well with a more complex story built in than I started with. 

 

Including what I did below just on the unlikely chance anyone is interested in how things evolve for me. 

 

Spoiler

• Very often, I start off with glowies that deliver clues to advance the story but then swap that clue for an interaction or dialogs instead. In this case, several clues that were in the Arachnoid Lab I gave to lab techs protecting a destructible object and removed the glowie.
• The lab also got a captive who is going to be turned into an Arachness to help personify this.
• Refined my custom Rogue Arachnos Roboticists (based on the orb weavers) swapping them for Mu. (Rogue Mu don't make much sense to me really). Flying around Warburg in game, seeing Malta bots mixed in with the rogue arachnos makes me wonder why they are not already in the standard mob - but they are for these missions at least. 
• The warehouse to arachonid cave map continued to be buggy. Even an escort to the glowie did not work - so I updated the dialog to address you do that without your allies.
• On that map I also turned all the rescues into allies, from captives because seeing Arachnoids, bread to be super soldiers, run off did not make much sense. Gives you a bit more connection to the group since you work together too. Made the allies stand out with some custom color loincloths.
• Now that you are kiting an army of Arachnoids, you need a big bad boss - so used one that was in the final mission in here instead. Its tricky since going down into the web means your allies won't follow - you have to gather them back up to fight the big bad if you go below before fighting him. There is only so much I can do with a buggy map. 😕 
• Which meant there was a hole in the final mission - created an Arachness AV (Queen) called Ollth ( a nod to the Queen of the Demonweb Pits). A little worried marshal blitz is pretty tough, as I swapped his secondary from devices to energy armor, (in keeping with the original) but with two allies by your side - I was always able to win.

 

[Kyksie]

 

If anyone has been wondering where Kyskie has been recently, she finally found a job as an overnight security guard at a medical marijuana facility in nearby Warwick. Things were uneventful the past few months, until last night, when instead of getting onto the bus back to Paragon City, she accidentally got on the helicopter to Warburg. Warzone Agent Goddard met Kyksie as she arrived on the platform, finishing off the last of her Taco Bell chalupas.

 

1) A mysterious dude named Sam has tipped Goddard that something weird has been happening in the tunnels beneath Warburg, could you take a look? Kyksie investigates, and discovers the unthinkable: Arachnoids with boobs.

 

2) Marshall Blitz is planning to transport a group of "Arachnesses" to Paragon City, presumably to start an Arachnoid nail salon or something. Kyksie hops in and makes with the kicking.

 

3) Now they're doing experiments on Arachnesses. Kyksie searches the lab for a Fritos vending machine but finds only a plan to make more Arachnesss using Lord Recluse's blood. Annoyed, she plants a bomb in the lab, then goes looking for a late night gas station.

 

4) Sam is trapped in a cave, go save him. We rescue his Arachnoid friends and clear his browser history.

 

5) Lolth the Spider Queen is on the verge of attacking Paragon City with an army of Drow, or something like that. Kyksie smoked another doobie on the way over, so the entire battle was kind of a blur. Marshal Blitz has some odd dialog about wanting the Arachnoids to hook up with nice lady spiders and have lots of spiderlings.

 

Like all the other arcs by this author, Spycraft and Spidermen is fun and well written, with no overly tough mobs or time wasters.

 

Edited July 23, 2020 by Kyksie

[Ankylosaur]

Spycraft & Spidermen on Twitch at about 20 mins in!. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1743627208 

 

So great to see! Thanks again for exploring AE on SundAEs (the AE seems to also mean Aeon on Sundays 🙂 )