All That Glitters Series - Vigilante - [1 - 54]

[Darmian]

6 hours ago, Icono04 said:

Yes, you do 🙂 I have recently played through all of Glimmers, Glints and Gleams on my dedicated goldsider character, and missing that one mission (Glints 4.1) is nagging at my OCD. 😉

 

A couple of other feedback points:

 

1) I thought the

  Reveal hidden contents

Neo Tokyans

were very well thought-out and added a lot to the various arcs they appeared in. I would like to see more of them in future arcs or in possible future reworks of the existing arcs. Interesting groups, and they fill a gap in the game lore.

 

2a) Ref. your ideas for a new naming convention, I agree that getting rid of the Glitters/Glimmers/Glints/Gleams prefixes and calling them all "Post Praetoria Campaign No. X.X" makes the whole thing appear more cohesive and more RPGesque. 

 

2b) How set are you on the campaign title "Post Praetoria Campaign"? It is, of course, very accurate in describing what the campaign is about, but to my artsy sensibilities it feels almost too clinical in its descriptiveness. In order to sell the campaign to future AE users (or reselling it to someone like myself for future replaying), something slightly more dramatic might be better. Perhaps something along the lines of "Post Praetoria Power Plays", since there are many different groups who take turns throughout all the arcs vying for power among the ex-Praetorians. Or something else that includes the words Post Praetoria (which I agree signifies nicely what the campaign is about) but with a few fluff words added to make it sound more grand. Anyway, your campaign, your choice, these are just my loose pre morning coffee thoughts.

 

2c) Putting the name of each arc last in the sentence makes the most sense to me. I would, however, place the "fork title" before the number, like this: "Post Praetoria Campaign - Tech - 2.2: Fortunes in Faultline" rather than "Post Praetoria Campaign 2.2 - Tech: Fortunes in Faultline". Makes it easier to identify at a glance which fork one is looking at.

Excellent post and breakdown here.

 

Now, @Ankylosaur can hop in here and correct me, but I fear my own work may have skewed his naming conventions, since I felt he wanted more clarity than the vagary I deal in!

[Ankylosaur]

I'm not sure that's true @Darmian - 🙂  but who recalls? 

 

I have thought about renaming 1.1-1.3 to All That Gleams so that it is the Forks (Glitters, Gimmers and Glints)  that ll have their own names, and then it reconvenes in All That Gleams 5.0  but, decided I'm worrying about minutia that is unimportant to anyone at all. 🙂 

 

Making good progress on Glints 4.1 🙂

Edited July 21, 2022 by Ankylosaur

[Darmian]

5 minutes ago, Ankylosaur said:

I'm not sure that's true @Darmian - 🙂  but who recalls? 

 

I have thought about renaming 1.1-1.3 All That Gleams so that it is the Forks (Glitters, Gimmers and Glints)  that ll have their own names, but, decided I'm worrying about minutia that is unimportant to anyone at all. 🙂 

 

Making good progress on Glints 4.1 🙂

RL and work has got in the way of many a thing for me lately, but never fear, I will get to your stuff!

[Getaways]

Just finished 1.1 - Missing in Mercy - Arc ID: 35842 - 1-10 Final.  Can’t wait to run more!  The story was great and the missions were fun. I really like the dialogue and storytelling in between the missions.  Keep up the good work!

[Ankylosaur]

All That Glitters 3.1 was originally written in Eden. If you've noticed, 2.1 - 2.3 all take place in Paragon's Hazard Zones. Part of the premise for Langston Corp. to move to Paragon is that they are willing to reclaim some of the hazard zones. The Mayor gives them abandoned land, and their Big Brother Construction arm constructs an office/warehouse/powerplant in the area, bringing in jobs. The Gold Brickers are brought in to secure the construction/productivity/manufacturing from the "Wild West" that is a hazard zone and the reclamation begins.

 

Well, for a variety of reasons that I probably spelled out somewhere above, I moved 3.1 from Eden to Nerva. I've moved it back which introduces a new map and better motivations.  The main thread is the same though, so if you happen to have played it - you end up in the same place.

 

It is now All That Glitters 3.1: Extractions in Eden.

 

Why?

 

Spoiler

There were several reasons I moved it back

1. The idea that Langston is revitalizing hazard zones is a core premise of how they get invited as a legitimate player in Paragon. There is a fully functioning warehouse in Eden (Acadia neighborhood) with full power that just begs to have a reason to be there - this is that.
2. This mission focuses heavily on Crey - another tech org counterpart of Langston Labs. They are present in both Eden and Nerva, and have a nice office in Nerva - however - what I wanted them to do makes better sense in Eden, and makes better sense for Langston to try to leverage in Eden. Plus, I wanted to give Crey a better presence throughout this arc. In Eden they are really the only non-DE there - until Langston shows up.
3. If you know my style, I like outdoor missions in my arcs to give a sense of place. I originally moved 3.1 to Nerva because I wanted that. I finally came up with a good way to use the one outdoor Eden map in this. At the time I did not have Hornet, your contact with a stolen Arachnos Flyer as a simple conceit for why you are arriving in an Arachnos flyer - now I do.
4. Glimmers was written later, but for reasons that are part of that series you spend A LOT of time in Nerva - so leveraging Nerva here seems unnecessary - in fact - I want to save the time you spend in Nerva for all the action in Glimmers. (I try not to reuse maps.)
5. The new Gold Bricker costume parts meant that I could easily make Gold Bricker Gaians and include them in the story. The Gaians' origin is Eden, and shoehorning them into Nerva was just a quirk I accepted - but its better they are not. (See The Genesis and Geneticists of the Coming Hammigeddon for their origin.)

 

I doubt anyone cares a lick - but just working out loud. 🙂

Edited July 23, 2022 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

Wow! So this latest release was a gift and a (pleasant?) burden!

 

So much new Gold Bricker stuff that I really am thinking of doing a big ole simplification rewrite pass on Glitters 2.2 to 4.3. As mentioned above, I have already done a pass to integrate my own custom versions of mobs, but now I should consider redoing it with the new mobs and the new maps. It also gives me a chance to simplify it a bit. I already felt it was a little heavy on named villains before Mr. Rodney and Princess Zoe showed up. All the names make it hard for the player to keep track of everyone (sort of like the Council).

 

I like my customs, but am a little torn over whether I should keep them, or remove them altogether. You just can't get the true gold bricker look in the costume creator - their color of yellow/gold is not a standard color. But then the Rocketeer. Rockette, Dirigible, Airship, Strafer. Beamer, Zeppelin and Spitfire would all be out...

 

The inter-dimensional nature of Brickernauts and AU Gold Brickers make me want to maybe replace or augment ConDev inter-dimensional pirates too...

 

Current simplification thoughts

Spoiler

 

Characters

 

• William Langston has already taken the role my custom King Midas did in the original story - so his updated self and role in the story stays.
• Alton Langston remains the Big Brother over Big Brother Construction - making William have just two kids - him and King Midas
• King Midas is over the Gold bickers and ConDev
• Mr. Rodney takes the role "Pinkie" Langston had.
• Princess Zoe takes the roles of Carmela and Dalton Langston, running Langston Labs.
• Zeppelin and Spitfire EBs replaced with some of the new Gold Bricker EBs

Mobs

• Use OOB Gold Brickers without customs when Gold Brickers are used?
• ConDev mob becomes home to the inter-dimensional gold brickers + my stolen inter-dimensional piratey tech mobs - all dimensional travelers in one group. Answers the question of where some UPA folk went after Calvin Scott was defeated. Update my customs to use the Aeon Gloves?
• Remove my custom Revenants as a mob and keep the stolen Crey revenant tech focused on Infini-life purposes only. Tightens that up, plus, though I thought I needed revenants mob originally, they are just a bit of a distraction really. ConDev can use stolen clockwork in their place for dangerous areas like irradiated praetoria.

Maps

• Langston Ship's portal map takes the place of the portal corp map I had used
• Dimensional Shift Cap Au Diable has a perfect home already in the finale.
• Smelter map is trickier - worked in somewhere - perhaps in place of Revenants cells now that they are out of the story. or maybe in the Terra Volta story since its a big industrial area - though that is low level, or maybe in 4.2

•  

 

 

Edited August 26, 2022 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

Well, I spent hours and hours at it and can say I am squarely done with a first pass - which is to say the main things are changed, and now it needs a complete playthrough to find all the finer details that I may have overlooked. 

 

But the big boulders are moved - and now where there were Gold Brickers (and ConDev) it is 99% out-of-the-box Gold Brickers. (King Midas has to be custom). Gotta make sure that "Canon related" checkbox is accurate 😉

 

The key changes

Spoiler

 

• I replaced all my custom Gold Brickers with the OOTB ones. (Though curiously - there are no Gold Bricker "Breakers")
• I replaced all the ConDev mobs with the OOTB Gold Brickers. Why? As shared above, I think my story meandered a bit and had too many villains - it got too complicated. ConDev - as a mob - was introduced in higher levels and as inter-dimensional pirates, and the AU Gold Brickers were an almost too easy replacement since inter-dimensional travel is their thing. For my own ease, I kept some of the piratey-ness in there, but just justifing that as a thing they adopted themselves for their fun-loving roguish natures. (ConDev as a predecessor to Langston Labs is still in there, but my custom pirate gatecrashing mob is gone...)
• As mentioned above, Princess Zoe easily fit in as a tech leader replacement for my Carmela and Dalton Langston. (Carmela and Dalton remain, demoted a bit, without the Langston surname - just as researchers in Langston Labs).
• Similarly, "Pinkie" Langston, the leader of the ConDev inter-dimensional pirate mob was easy to replace with Mr. Rodney who plays a similar-enough role.
• Fit in all the Gold Bricker maps too - as mentioned in the previous post. So great to have mob-related maps.

 

 

Now - with the big sweep done, it's time to pass through again with a finer-toothed comb.

 

On the off chance anyone is playing through this and sees any oddness - feedback, as always, is welcome and appreciated,

Edited August 27, 2022 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

Made many many substantive changes that further refined the story. ConDev is gone as a mob, as are the Revenants, and I also improved many of little pieces of the story and encounters based on those changes. And that is in addition to the changes from the original I had already made of incorporating the new King Midas, Prince Zoe, et al.

All of this really tightens the story up a lot -if you have not played it yet and it piques your interest, this tightening of the leading players in the story makes the story tighter too.

 

These changes are so specific they would only be meaningful for someone who played through it all before, and very spoilerish to those who have not, but here they are

 

Spoiler

Langston Labs mob got a few small updates

• Used the new Sonic Assault powers on engineers and engineering directors instead of the sonic blaster powers. Had considered it for the lab assistant minions too, but there are so many "chance of hold" powers I thought that might get unwieldy on large teams. 
• Added in the Xenologist and Xenology Director to justify the Rikti tech parts of the story now that the ConDev mob is not running around using it.

As to encounters and story

• 2.2 - Replaced ConDev with the Mooks, which ties them in in the 2.x trio of stories - an important story refinement, making sure they show up in each of the trios.
• 2.3 - Replaced Spitfire and Zeppelin with Fort Knoxxer and Gold Brickster. Also, for some reason there is a level 8-34 Mr. Rodney EB in the gold bricker mob who does not have his Aeon Gloves yet. (Are the devs planning new things at this level?) Here he replaced Carmela.
• 3.1 - Level changed to 30-34 to keep the range in line with the mob switch - meaning the level 35-54 gold brickers don't show up yet. Also meant I got to use Crey Protectors as placed bosses since that is their level range - not sure why I like them so much, but I do, so was pleased with that tiny detail. Got to use the new Crey Cryogenicists too for named doctors.  Added in The Burninator as the GB raid leader - there was not one before and should have been.
• 3.2 - the inverse solution to 2.2. Here, in the mook warehouse, replaced ConDev with Gold Brickers - their only showing in this one; keeping them connected is a good thing.
• 3.3 - the cauldron map replaced M4 here - causing me to redo the whole mission. This arc was low on unique map experiences with me originally thinking the Kallisti offices were enough. In truth, the old M4 was a bit of a repeat to earlier missions - new info but similar map/mob experience - so was glad to include this in its place. Removed the Revenants mob which got introduced here - and they are gone. And Zoe replaced Dalton. Considering giving her some custom breakers since they are not in the mob. Also - originally had Manticore in it as an ally, but Wyvern levels were raised, and this is no longer the last mission, so swapped in your pals Ollerus and Hornet. Also took the lab maps from Medium to Small to tighten things up - may not have been needed in M5, but tight is usually appreciated. Pointed out the Gold Brick Trucks and Big Brother Construction equipment at the Kallisti Arena too since that ties it in - should have done that ages ago.
• 4.1 - Smelter Zoe and the piratey AU's make a showing here. Considering using a custom version of a few placed piratey Gold Brickernauts to justify the Rikti weapon hoarding.
• 4.2 - Boat portal map and many refinements to dialog. Revenants are no longer in Praetoria of course too - replaced with Big Brother Constructor bots which keeps Big Brother more involved throughout. This is now where Manticore makes a showing which is a much better segue to the finale - should have already thought of this change but better late than never.
• 4.3 - BIG refinements to the final fight which should really make it MUCH more dramatic and exciting (if not also a bit appropriately ridiculous) and better leverage your huge cadre of allies. Able to use the new Aeon Scientists too. Also toned down the Langston end goal to be one that fit in a bit more - sort of like Glimmers. And of course as mentioned before the new Cap Au Diable map just slide in here perfectly. I also gave you more to do in that final map, addressing @Take One's feedback from ages ago.

•  

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by Ankylosaur

[Icono04]

23 hours ago, Ankylosaur said:

tightening of the leading players in the story makes the story tighter too

I wanted to highlight this bit, as I think this is a big deal. One thing I have noticed when playing AE arcs in general - and for that matter the canonical story arcs and TFs in CoX - is that if the story doesn't do a good job of making me care what happens to the main NPCs and/or groups in the story, then I lose interest in fulfilling the story's objectives and find myself merely facerolling attack buttons to get to the next part of the story. So, yeah, thanks for the tightening-up, I suspect the story is improved now. Dunno when I personally will find the time to play through 'Glitters myself, but one day...

[Ankylosaur]

While working on All That Glows, I fiddled around with a couple of other stories too to tie them in or just update them based on things @TerroirNoir noted. Just documenting the changes here...

 

Spoilers abound

• Spoiler

  • 1.3 - First, I needed to include a hook to introduce the new All That Glows story fork. Dr. Helix of the resistance has peace-bringer powers, so inserted her in the lab - another Praetorian scientist that Langston recruited. As a Kheldian, I claimed she is one of the rare Bright Nictus (they do exist) and had possessed the Dr. before the fall - which ties in super well with ATGlows story. On Praetoria no one knew what a Nictus was so just presumed she had those powers, but here people recognized her, and she had no interest in the Council and joined Langston. As a geneticist, she also could foreshadow the human shell tech they are working on. TerroirNoir's playthrough helped me realize that I had a chance to better foreshadow a few other tech projects of theirs too. It also let me better establish the head of Langston Labs, Zoe Langston.
  • 2.1 - The Boomtown exploration in M1 is a chance to remind players about the other story forks and show, not just tell, about some of the things happening there. I standardized the approach here and made sure each was represented with an optional interrogation - a banished pantheon boss, a silver clockwork boss, and a galaxy boss.
  • 2.3 - I realized with TerriorNoir's playthrough that while Burke was rescued in 1.1 M1, you never see him again. Originally, figured I could use him someday for some intel, but I never did. It was time to close out that open thread. He found a perfect new home in 2.3. Also made another change in that mission to better include someone you meet.
  • 3.1 - Mission 4 in this arc has changed many times. In it you save someone from a digital prison, which means I can use just about any map and mob to represent that. Too many choices! 🙂  It's been the Ruladek cave (but of course that sucks) with several different groups over time, followed by the Zig. As I am now using the Zig in ATGlows, and try to avoid reusing maps unless you are specifically returning to the same place, I pulled that from here. I swapped it out with a fun and hard-to-use map in a realistic-ish but silly way. Very pleased with this new change.

   

Edited October 16, 2022 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

One of the great things about @TerroirNoir's playthough is that I get to see the experience through another's eyes. This has led me to do little tidy-up's in the wake of the review.

 

The latest is 2.3. Terawatts in Terra Volta. As the industrial area of Paragon, it's fairly ignored but for the respec. With The Langston's having Antimatter's rector tech, it's a great place for them to expand to to shore up the aging Power Plant and make some cash. They also build a factory and distribution center there and that is where M1 starts. And that's where refinements begin...

Spoiler

 

The thing is, this was the second arc I wrote for the series, and I have not really done much to alter it. I wanted to introduce the Robopals here, but I have since foreshadowed them in 1.3, introduced them in 2.1, and let you see them in more detail in 2.2  Fortunes in Faultline. So no real point. In M1 originally, you faced a few of them with the outside of the factory just a backdrop, but It feels odd to have them standing out there.

 

• M1 -  one of my set-the-scene types of missions
  • Instead of facing Random Robopals in the streets, I updated this to have to investigate those huge destructible crates; one for each of the "series" of Robopals, containing a fully assembled one for delivery. (Can't use Trucks as they can spawn on the elevated walkways). The Gold Brickers guarding each of them reference the type of Robopal and where they are headed and it's implied they fly them there. It also shows why this is a good location for their factory, as they are assembling them in the middle of Independence Port if they need to ship them somewhere. (e.g. Milipals are being shipped to Striga - which reinforces their selling the Praetorian tech to other groups to make money.)
  • Also in M1, I had some of the Milipals wandering. Replaced them with Securipals, and put more securipals in the area too to show they are in full production and use by Langston.
  • Another wandering group were Sky Raiders. I had some custom flying sky raiders going around there, and replaced them with pure Sky Skiffs, which is very Terra Volta after all.
  • Updated the dual pistol Securipals with more interesting secondaries.
• Much to my surprise, I found references in some clues to Carmella Langston that I had missed and not updated! (Carmella cause - candy - Gold Brick bars!). She was the head of Langston Labs before the new Gold Brickers were released. Replaced her mentions with Zoe Langston. Langston Labs folk will refer to her as Zoe Langston, the Gold Brickers refer to her as Princess Zoe.
• Updated ALL Robopals to use Clockwork boots to better show the fact that they are just the Langston attempt to humanize the existing Praetorian tech. (previously was inconsistent here on male models, often going for long pants, but modified that.)
• Plus I fixed the Nimieth typo.  
• Previously, I had done the update with Burke and Delia in M3 mentioned above. (Never tried a Sentinel, but her Archery/Ninjitsu could be a fun concept.)

So as you can see - super minor - but good - refinements.

 

Edited October 24, 2022 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

More updates as I watch @TerroirNoir play through Glitters. I see opportunities to do small improvements and so I do...

 

Nothing plot-related - but some big refinements in the lower levels to add more punch to the missions and in particular the x.3 finales.

 

Spoiler

 

I figured the lower levels could use some more personality and clearer villains, which gave Mr. Rodney and Alton Langston more screen time. Also swapped in Alton's primary to war mace so he could use the goldbricker wrench 

 

 

• 1.2 Port Oakes
  1. Realized now that the Gold Brickers have their fancy portal boat, I could circle back to the boat in dry dock in Port Oakes 1.2 and tie that in - making it the same boat in dry dock being outfitted.  In 1.2, the Mooks reveal the Gold Brickers are working with the Family to capture Praetorian tech and refit ships. But the Mook's motivation to reveal this to you is so the Mooks can expose the Family and make them weaker with your help. You are successful, which causes the Gold Brickers to change their alliance to the Mooks - really whoever controls the dry docks in Port Oakes. So I went in and made implications that the ship they were re-fitting in 1.2 is the ship with the D-Rifter portal on it before It is improved
  2. While there, I realized I had another opportunity. You have Ollerus (an EB) as your ally while doing a raid on a Gold Bricker cargo ship. Well, now that there is a version of Mr. Rodney - pre-AU gloves - that is set for levels 8-34, I put him in as the raid leader. Makes for a better fight when you have an EB ally and gives him a chance to tie this in a little bit more. His dialog also sets the stage for him using pirate names for his AU Gold Brickers MUCH later - like he had the idea while fighting you. (So who was Mr. Rivers in @TerroirNoir' playthrough is now a low level Mr. Rodney.)
  3. Also pointed out where you can find Mr. Rodney in the game - in front of the Langston mansion in Cap.
• 1.3 Cap Au Diable
  1. In M5 - Added Rodney in the finale too - he makes the Mook transition of power and Golden Sphinx ship update clearer too.
  2. That meant I added in Ollerus to help you combat him.
  3. Which meant Dr. Cohen got boosted to an EB, too, to make sure he could stand his ground a bit better.
  4. Makes this ending feel like more of a fight and more significant.
• 2.1 Boomtown 
  1. Decided Mr. Rodney could appear here too as its the first gold Bricker foray into Paragon that you know of - makes for a nice through line. Puts a face to Langston
• 2.3 Terra Volta
  1. And on the flip side, Alton Langston was in 2.1, but there was no AV in 2.3 (after his sister Carmela was no more). I added in Alton as the final fight here too, since it's his job site in Terra Volta. So that makes Rodney a through-line through the first half and gives Alton more prominence in 2.x, which is appropriate. 

 

And then I dressed up a few things at higher levels too.

• 3.3 and 4.2
  1. In Kingston heights, I realized I was missing an opportunity to populate the area using Release Captives. So now there are lots of vendor carts and citizens ready to defend themselves from Vigilantes like you in their neighborhood. Sadly, the mob does not seem to use all the eating hamburgers, donuts, and drinking coffee animations I had in mind for them, but what can you do...
  2. I also put the Rikti bombs back in 4.2 to bring some life (6 non-required defendable objects that Gold Brickers swoop in and destroy.)
  3. In 4.2, on the boat, since you have SO many AV allies, populated more bosses.
  4. Also in 4.2 tied in the 1.2 Golden Sphinx ship.
• 4.3 - in anticipation of the playthrough
  1. Added a callback to the Crey mission of 3.1 since Crey is naturally in The Fab - they would be upset that Langston is there now too.
  2. Did a tiny bit more justification for Lord Recluse's actions by giving Crimson some intel that makes Recluse's actions supported by his own motivation and not just a reaction to Langston's actions.
  3. Cleaned up some text in the final clues and tried better populating the final denouement that is M5. Still not sure it's quite all it can be, but like above, used more release captives too.
  4. Made a better showing in M5 for everyone's favorite demon summoner.

 

•  

Edited November 14, 2022 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

You know, that post, above started with just some small things but caused me to move several things around.

 

When I integrated the new Gold Brickers, I was so focused on Zoe, and swapping in the high end AU Gold Brickers, that I did not pay enough attention to the change in story from the mid down. I plugged holes, putting Princes Zoe in for Dalton and Mr. Rodney in for Carmella, but did not really re-think it - and @TerroirNoir playthrough made me realize a few things - in particular that 

1. 1.3 and 2.3, section finales - did not end with a big win/fight.
2. Mr. Rodney (as a OOB mob who spans in different forms) 8-54, presented an opportunity to span the whole thing.
3. The integration of the Mooks in 2.x and 3.x could carry a thread forward.

So this took me back to an early post in this thread about who the Langston's are and what their motivations are. I kind of subbed in the new Gold Brickers into their old roles, without looking with fresh eyes.

Spoiler

 

• Mr. Rodney - he is a right-hand to Midas who, with William, is orchestrating the Gold Brickers. He replaced "Pinkie" Langston, on the high levels, leader of the inter-dimensional pirate raiders. Since adding him as the raid lead in 1.2, I realized could have him lead all the raids that happen throughout the series, making sure he shows up in each little trilogy until he transforms to leading the AU Gold Brickers. This makes him more interesting and gives another evolution and multi-level thread. This also had me pull him out of even a few of the places I mention above or where he was before since his role shifted to the leader of raids.
• Bloody Vicious - There was a super obvious place to include him in the story along the way and make the Mooks, and your connection through him, more prominent. I did that.
• Dr. Cohen - was a missed opportunity. He claims he was a high-level scientist in Anti-matter's org - I missed a chance to make him a dash more interesting and finishing the chase to find him more of a finale. Now that he is a little stronger, he has a new look tied to his thin backstory and one that makes him stand out.
• Alton - as mentioned above, he replaced Mr. Rodney (who originally replaced Carmella Langston) at the end of 2.3 as a more interesting and appropriate fight for the finale - letting me put a Langston back in that role instead of Mr. Rodney. Plus - he is much more imposing now with his golden wrench... 🙂

 

 

The players changed but the play is the same. Instead of a random Boomer leading a particular raid, now it's Mr. Rodney. Instead of a random Mook leading a specific location, now it's Bloody Vicious. Instead of Mr. Rodney in the new Power Plant, its the guy who is building it.

 

Edited November 15, 2022 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

After Engineria explored Glitters, I realized one of the things I did not do was really do much to seed the issues with Dr. Aeon and possible motivations against him that would make you feel good about ousting him. So I thought I would pop a clue or three in the series that shared more of the Dr. Egon story and came upon something that I had totally forgotten about, and, well, needed to put in. It's a tiny change with big implications. 

 

Professor Echo.

 

In the few instances where you encounter him in the Marshal Brass arcs, you get a sense for who he is, but of course it also leaves a lot of open questions.

 

So what do we know about Professor Echo...

1. He is an older Dr. Aeon from the future
   1. He (mostly) looks the same with the same armor and abilities as Dr. Aeon.
   2. His hair is white and longer and he has a beard.
   3. We see him "chronoport" - i.e. time travel further confirming he could be from another time.
   4. Dr. Aeon says something like, "Wait, you're me?" to him.
   5. Dr. Aeon's? description in the mission with both refers to him as a younger version of Professor Echo
2. He works with Wyvern
   1. Which means he's goodish (Vigilante I presume)
   2. He seems to be working against Arachnos and definitely Dr. Aeon
3. His armor is a tiny bit different than Aeon
   1. His armor uses the same patterns as Aeon, but, where Aeon's is white, Echo's is black - i.e. opposite (His hair is opposite too of course)
      1. Could this mean his change in alignment is that he is from another dimension - e.g. Praetoria?
      2. Or did he just "turn good" and paint it a different color?

At any rate, I have put him into the story now, too, as he clearly has ties to Wyvern AND is working against Dr. Aeon.

 

Played through the Marshal Brass stuff again, and unlike the wiki photo, he has Aeon gloves I- game now too. I also would think he is /time now instead of /FF, now that the time set is available but will see where I land with that.

 

Spoiler

So what is Professor Echo after?

 

I presume, based on what we have seen in-game, he is trying to set things in motion that make Dr. Aeon become, well, Professor Echo. Things that might send Aeon on a different path to redemption and leaving behind his villainous ways.

 

So was he behind the whole thing?

 

 

 

[Ankylosaur]

A couple of refinements on the extreme ends of the series.

 

In 1.1 - Missing in Mercy, I found a way to include a bit more of the ex-pat Praetorian story from the beginning. I always felt that I got to that a little late in the intro arcs and came up with a way to correct that.

 

In 1.1, you are seeking a Praetorian scientist to make sure his knowledge falls into the hands you want them to. Rather than make it just about him, I peppered in more ex-Praetorians and even created a mob "The Dispossessed" that he would have been part of til he started to make his own way out.
 

Spoiler

 

The Dispossessed are just low level Resistance plus Praetorian Police Department (+ angry citizens if you are low enough). They are the ex-Praetorian folk that are without a homeland, don't want to integrate into regular society, and not interested in teaming up in the UPA or with Calvin Scott.

 

 

The core premise is a kind of reboot of the "Destined Ones" project - this time, however Recluse liberated people from Refugee island before dumping them to fend for themselves in Mercy. That was always how Cohen found himself there - but now as part of a bigger effort and group.

 

It was easy to work them into the mission in the place of some non-critical skulls and helions in M2, and in the place of the "cured" infected, with Dr. Creed. There are so many low-level named Resistance in the mob - they give a real sense of personality to the place - humanizing their new base in Dr. Creed's Cesspool map...

 

They actually ended up making appearances in 1.2 in the ship raid. Beholder ended up replacing Psicicle in 1.1 and in 1.3 to direct people to the Glints story fork. All of this ended up giving a good thread full of people to follow and to establish the Gold Brickers as expanding their numbers with Praetorians, like ConDev did in earlier versions long ago.

 

As always - show and not just tell - and now you can see how dispossessed some of the Praetorian exiles are.
 

 

5.0 - Redemption in Neo Tokyo got an update too. Unfortunately, the old arc was too large, and I would lose my map server connection every time I tried to open it. So I had to pull it down and replace it - losing its plays and 5-star rating. 😞 Oh well. This was a smaller sweep, taking in some of @Take One's feedback from long ago and updating a few things now that Police vs Aliens has been rewritten as All that Glows, and All That Glints has been written, and that Glitters lost ConDev and Revenants. Some Quality of Life elements in M5 too which was a bit overloaded with objectives. I reduced them while also upping the challenge a bit for the finale on that massive map.

 

Spoiler

The big changes were

• tying in Professor Echo,
• adding in more of Mr. G's gang,
• updating with the new Nictus stuff + Helix,
• removing the Revenants and replacing ConDev references
• reducing Serafina's support (as she was one AV ally too many most of the time)
• and then making M5 better with Kojin!.

 

Edited December 12, 2022 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

It started with Helix, a Resistance member who has Kheldian powers. I thought I could put her into 1.x to introduce the All That Glows story fork during the Glitters intro. 

 

And then that turned into the effort above, in which I realized I could insert a few more of the Resistance into the 1.x series to make it have a few more Praetorians in its post-Praetorian intro. 

 

And then that became its own through-line thread - shoring up a few loose ends from a previous incarnation of this series.

 

In short - there are more ex-Praeotirans demonstrably embedded in the Gold Brickers. This was always stated to be the case, but now is more visible as they include known named Resistance leaders. I was able to place them throughout without change to the story - instead - putting in these known, named folk, where before there were simply generic Boomers or Brickernauts without a background.

 

 

Spoiler

I had been so focused on the ending that I had not really looked critically at the beginning for a long time. I have known for awhile that it needed more evidence of the Praetorians integrating with the Gold Brickers, and finally came up with a nice way to do it.

 

There are so many named, unique folk in the Resistance mob at the low levels. 

• In 1.1 the premise is they were rescued from Refugee Island by Arachnos in a reboot of the Destined Ones project - but now with the ex-Praetorians - and dumped in Mercy to prove their way up the Arachnos chain.
  • M2 - you "interrogate" Vagabond and Hatchet to help you find Cohen
  • M3 - you meet them healed up from a mediporter in Dr. Creed's cesspool - a base of sorts. They take the place of the healed Infected. You also meet Wardog, Ricochet, Jack Hammer, Hatchet, Vagabond, Tunnel Rat, and Helix along with the dispossessed as mentioned in the previous post
  • M4 - you free Beholder - who takes the place of Psicicle - she went to Desslock to learn the ways of the Fortunate without needing to join Arachnos.
• In 1.2
  • M4 - when you face the Gold Brickers on the ship - many of the Resistance leaders mentioned show up as bosses on that boat - each leading a squad of Gold Brickers, so they clearly escaped Mercy with the Gold Brickers help.
• In 1.3
  • M5 - in the Langston lab base, you face Beholder (who introduces the Glints - ex Seer story fork) and Helix (who introduces the Glows - Nictus story fork).
• In 2.2 Faultine
  • There were several named Gold Brickers leading various raids. They are now integrated into the Gold Brickers, with custom versions of them, like Ricochet example below. 
• In 4.1
  • M5 - you raid their base. Originally this was a ConDev, pirate themed thing, and several of the "Cap'ns" gave speeches along the lines of "whether you're ex Praetorian like me, or not, they're coming after our freedoms" and whatnot. The original custom ConDev Cap'ns were replace with Elite Brickernauts when I removed the ConDev mob, but kept their speeches. Now they are Cap'n Wardog, Cap'n Vagabond, etc. - still Brickernauts.
  •  

In the end there are more Praetorians in the story, with their own evolution. Adds a more personal connection to the plight of those ex-Praetorians that do not want to join the UPA or integrate into society.

 

This post may really only be to just update @TerroirNoir who went through it all recently. The other tidbit here is that only Glitters got such substantial tweaks - Glimmers, Glints, and Glows were planned out more, and weren't built on the shifting sands of the evolving Gold Brickers. Helix is already in the Glows series and I may try to fit Beholder in the Glints. 🙂

 

 

 

 

Edited December 16, 2022 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

Watching a recent play through on Twitch, I saw that the Lab Tech minions of my Langston labs mob were melting tanks. They're just minions with just a couple of basic sonic attacks and Aid Self - but - in large numbers with taunt, all that sonic appeared to be devastating. 

 

Sooo, I started to think a bit on what I could do to diversify them. I already had an absurd number of minions because I wanted them to look unique while having the same power sets. Instead I diversified the power sets in a way that was super obvious in hindsight.

 

The whole Glitters story about the Gold Brickers was started before there were any Gold Brickers above level 20. Langston Labs was there in part to justify the fact that my custom Gold Brickers used sonic attacks from their mouths instead of from their trademarked guns. 

 

Well all that has changed since the introduction of higher level Gold Brickers - I'm not using customs. Also Langston Labs' role has expanded to be repurposing and developing all sorts of weapons tech. At one point I had a custom ConDev mob representing that tech use - but I expunged them. Then some lingering custom gold brickers used some of that tech - but I moved on from that approach. Also the new Gold Brickers introduced even more new tech in the Smelters and AU, and now, I've updated Langston Labs to be using it.

 

So obvious...

• AU Techs and Physicists wear Aeon Gloves and use energy blast (Like AU Brickers)
• Smelter Techs and Chemists wear Banded Robotic Gloves and accessories and use Fire Blast and LTs/ Bosses get Thermal (Like Smelters)
• Xeno Techs and Xenologists get Rikti rifles (and maintain their Rad emissions like Rikti from some story stuff in 4.1)
• Beam Techs and Genetecists get Beam Rifles (stand ins for Praetorian tech like the high-level Family and Mooks use)

Simple! 

[Ankylosaur]

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

Spoiler

 

• 1.1 Missing in Mercy
  • M2
    • Added in Hellions to better foreshadow the 1.3 stuff.
    • Added in Legacy Chain allies too for the same reason, and because they are on Mercy these days.
    • Used a reskinned Cinderburn for fun too. (I avoid custom enemies at these low levels as I worry about balance - but a reskinned unique enemy makes for a balanced and more interesting fight).
  • M3
    • Added in some optional defendable barrels in the front to make the Contaminated more dynamic
    • I had previously put in a few of the First Warders to lay the seeds for Glimmers, but had used Release Captive allies so I could work in Candlestick and Anna Palatine since they are LTs in their mobs. Changed all that to bosses so they could trigger their language better.
      • Replaced Tunnel rat (who seems to have a new life in the newly released arcs) with Archemage Hellewise from Glimmers.
      • Replaced Candlestick with a Katie to foreshadow Glints.
    • Tidied up some clues
    • Fixed all the dialog on The Dispossessed praetorian allies to trigger at the right time.
  • M4
    • Made Beholder an Ally instead of released captive so you have time with her.
      • Worked her into the contact dialog too
      • She foreshadows the All That Glints stuff.
    • Changed the outside of the base to all Arachnos so you face them with your new ally. Probably a cakewalk with two allies so made the Arachnos mobs larger
  • M5
    • Had never had any combat, just a collection, changed that so there is an ambush. Its kind of expected, and now expectations are filled.
    • Leveraged the ally bosses to yell, "Incoming" and the like when they attack so the ambush feels dynamic.
• 1.2 Piracy in Port Oakes
  • M2
    •  
    • Added in Corlax to better foreshadow the Drowning Doomsday Plot from Glimmers.
    • Cleaned up Duke Mordrogar's dialog and interaction (no longer flees either)
      • Added in the little armless demon-thingy from the CoT mob to the Hellion mob. Should only appear at these levels but foreshadows 1.3 if it does appear.
    • Added battles to make the Port Oakes map more exciting 
      • Between the Mooks and Family to better demonstrate their conflict and who you are allied with.
      • With hellions and coralax too, for better connection on those threads.
  • M4
    • The Dispossessed who joined the Gold Brickers were leading Gold Brickers on the raid. Though they integrate more into the Gold Brickers in later arcs, here it felt early. Updated it so at this level they are still just Dispossessed working along with the Gold Brickers. They don't have jet packs or other gear yet. A first step in their integration. 
    • Tidied up some interactions/language.
       
• 1.3 Capitalism in Cap Au Diable
  • Added in Dr. Creed as a genetic researcher to foreshadow 2.3 
  • Refined Helix's speech to better align with All that Glows

 

• • •  

Edited July 12, 2023 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

After the refinements above, I started working on the 2.x group, including souvenirs.

 

 

I made some significant changes to 2.3, which was the second arc ever written in this massive series. It should be a more dramatic now. The key changes.

 

Spoiler

2.1 - Boomtime in Boomtown
Tiny changes

• Added in a Void Hunter searching for Helix to tie into All that Glows
  • Also made Helix another Nictus captive in Glows 2.1 in the Council base.
• Added in the Mooks to keep them present, replacing Alton Langston from the construction site
• Changed the boss you face in M1 to Mongoose, who, like the Dispossessed wanted to get out of Mercy and took the Gold Brickers golden ticket to do so... He's happy among the ruins of Boomtown - just misses the Snakes a little. 🙂

 

2.2 - Fortunes in Faultline
Small but significant changes

• Bloody Vicious is the boss in the warehouse now, and it is in Independence Port to illustrate the Mook expansion / Family conflict - same turf-  and keep that thread more alive by encountering this old ally from 1.2 as an enemy earlier.
  • This also had me change 3.2 to put Guido as the boss in the Casino back in St Martial - basically Bloody is serving to run the Paragon expansion while Guido consolidates power in the Isles.

 

 

2.3 - Terawatts in Terra Volta
Bigger changes

• M1
  • I included the non AU Mr. Rodney in Terra Volta outdoor map so you get a key card from him and discover the location of the next space instead of the doctor ally just feeding it to you.
  • I had Langston Robopals and Warworks in crates that were being shipped. Instead, made them allies which betray when they are freed, with the "shoppers" considering buying them around them to show rather than tell. This also make your disruption of the Langston commerce more palpable. 
    • Arachnos is looking to buy warworks from them (their ACUs and BCUs and others that show up in 4.3)
    • The Council, considering Robopals to help build their ranks after Striga (Milipals) and asking about warworks
    • Crey considering a Mr. Butler as a celebrity preview, mainly to reverse engineer
    • Cage Consortium considering Securipals to bolster their ranks
  • Added in Wyvern ally patrols and battles. After everything that went down in 2.2, it makes sense for Wyvern to be more agressive and makes the map more dynamic. It also makes the Gold bricker retaliation more of a reaction to their actions. 
  • Added in Ollerus and Hornet as allies since Mr. Rodney is there for those that want the help. Plus, sets them up for M4/5 being in zone already.
• M2
  • Included the Mooks in the warehouse to keep their expansion into Paragon more present throughout
  • Added in the Cargo Transport portals that you previously encountered much much later - again show don't tell. It demonstrates they may have direct portals to Praetoria. You don't know that yet, but since the Mooks are handling most Primal transport of goods the portals must be going somewhere unusual.
  • Added a Rikti Portal Stabilizer to foreshadow some of the Rikti stuff in 4.1.
• M3
  • Brought in the full trio of smelter EBs, pulling Fort Knoxxer from M4 
  • Tidied up the Professor Echo clue a bit too.
• M4
  • Changed the main fight to the AV smelter - named Spitfire in my story.
• M5
  • Text refinements to tie into some other changes in 3.x 
  • Had a bit of a revelation of who Dr. Cohen could be and changed his costume and powerset. He really did want Anti-matter's power tech to power Paragon. 

 

Non Player Character Progression

In part I am also working to tie characters you meet in 1.x throughout the rest of the story in place of others. This helps make those early encounters more meaningful to the players.

1. Mongoose - he's your ally in 1.1, and now joined the Gold Brickers in 2.1
2. Dr. Creed - There was a doctor doing research in 3.3 who is just a Dr. Someoneorother. Instead, I inserted Dr. Creed who you meet in 1.1 throughout so he evolves to be the lead researcher on the stolen revenant tech. He's now in 1.3, the first time you encounter Langston Labs and plays a bigger role in 3.3 with the Infinite-Life business and the stolen revenant tech.
3. Helix - got better treatment as mentioned above.
4. Bloody Vicious and Guido Verandi - are more present in each little trilogy after you meet them in 1.2 to keep the Mooks present.

 

 

•  

 

Edited July 12, 2023 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

Been doing a lot of work tightening Glitters. @TerroirNoir recently ran through it, and mentioned it was long, and I have been thinking about how to improve that. The thing is, I agree. It meanders a bit after 3.1, especially since the Aeon Strike Force came out. After that I removed two entire mob groups and their plots and that made some of the high level stuff a little thin.  

 

In thinking through the Glitters stuff, I am considering doing something kind of drastic - consolidating. The thing is - the payoff of the story is worth it - its just a VERY long road to get there.

 

How this Started

This started with me trying to make 2.3 a little better. I notice a drop off at 2.3 and 3.1, leading me to think 2.3 needs something more compelling and that they see such a long road to conclusion they lose interest. So introduced the Praetorian cargo transport portals earlier, in 2.3 (from 4.2) along with the Praetorian tech shoppers (from 4.1 and 4.2) and the Rikti Portal Stabilizers from 4.1). They make 2.3 better. But, learning the Gold Brickers are supplying everyone, and that the Mooks continue to help with that are some of the few main points of 3.2 (the Mook involvement), 4.1 (selling to the Council and getting Rikti tech) - making those. a tad redundant.   

 

Paring Redundancy

I think I can elminate 15 missions

• combine 3.3 and 4.2
• completely remove 3.2: Suspicious Maneuvers in St Martial and
• completely remove 4.1: Risky War Games in the Rikti War Zone.
• place important clues from the eliminated missions throughout the series 

 

Though I love a few of the scenes in Glitters 3.2 (using all the little casinos for St Martial and the Network dup) it diverges from the Gold Bricker expansion in Paragon by taking you back to the isles. And though there are some great fights in 4.1 (Rikti Freaks, Councilvania and the Goliath assault on Vanguard), they don't do a ton to move the story forward in ways that are not covered (or could be covered) elsewhere (Since All That Glows and All That Glints cover the Council in the post Striga world). Especially now that the ConDev pirates are gone, andthat the Revenant Scavengers are gone, I also think I could maybe combine bits of 3.3 and 4.2 into a single arc - taking the best/most critical of each.

 

Ultimately it would take it from what amounts to 12 arcs to 9 which is much more approachable. Also it makes for a tighter experience since again, a few arcs don't really advance the plot much, just give you a few new lenses into it.

 

Refining Threads

Other things I would need to account for

• Rikti tech would probably go into the lab with the Lost (2.2) to show it being acquired earlier (rather than 4.1). This justifies the Langston Labs Xenologists earlier thought which is good.
• Vanguard is less involved, so Number One will need to still be included as Vanguard needs to supply portal trips to Praetoria. (Losing 4.1 loses him as a contact.) 
• New Praetorians may not be involved at all. They are met in 4.1 and were the main contacts/allies in 4.2 but the switching away from Wyvern at high levels as your main contacts is part of what makes it feel like it is meandering a bit. The reason you meet them is because of the Council involvement, which is also a big part of 4.1, and now handled in All That Glows and All That Glints.
• Sgt Schrorr and all his St Martial contacts (e.g. Network and Colleague) are not introduced since 3.2 will be removed. I may need to work that in in text only as Colleague is a conduit into the Arachnos stuff.
• Sadly 3.2 loses another Duke Mordrogar failed demon summoning attempt with the Wailers - the poor Duke...

 

 

Clarifying The Conflict

Also this gives me a chance to tighten the main "enemy." 

• If you have played "The Ghost in The Machine" you know my original premise here was that King Midas was digitized by Aeon. This is why no one had seen him for years. There's lore to kind of support the idea, with an intern "going missing" in Egon's (Aeon's) lab and because Aeon designed the AE. 
• When the Aeon Strike Force introduced a new King Midas, I swapped who was digitized to William Langston, (King Midas' dad in my story) and Midas plays a small role. I think I may fix that too.
• The Doctor's story and Infini-Life - which relate to restoring a digitized person, gets less air time and I love those bits, but I think it is ok.

 

No one really plays them anymore though - so not sure it's worth it - but been noodling on this for a few weeks which means I will probably get around to it one day. So "Suspicious Maneuvers in St. Martial" and "Risky War g4meZ in the Rikti War Zone" may not not be around for too much longer.

Edited July 30, 2023 by Ankylosaur

[raven9864]

I'll run through this soon.

 

~Paws

[Ankylosaur]

@raven9864 - I'd maybe try the others and wait for the consolidation. 🙂 Saves you some time and should be a better experience for it.

[raven9864]

4 hours ago, Ankylosaur said:

@raven9864 - I'd maybe try the others and wait for the consolidation. 🙂 Saves you some time and should be a better experience for it.

 

Right on, brother!

 

~Paws

[Ankylosaur]

The updates have been slowly progressing. 

 

Honestly, got a little discouraged as someone recently played the finale, and its score dropped to 4 stars. I totally get someone not liking it, and understand it could be for a variety of reasons

1. Typos - maybe I've missed some or an update made something incongruent?
2. Story - maybe they don't like that my story proposes changing up the leadership / power struggle of the isles - for some that might be too much for an AE arc. Or maybe they don't like the morally ambiguous options and feel forced to pick between two bad ones.
3. Mechanics - maybe if they choose the path that gives you mission failed notice (even though its not a failure - just option B) or maybe they did not like having so many allies in Grandville to gather, even though it serves as sort of a reunion for the series.
4. Something else - could be something I have not thought of at all! Maybe its too easy or tough?

But here's the thing - if someone hated it and wants to give it a 1 to drop the score that's ok, I can't help how they feel, and as long as it's honest I even appreciate it. But by giving me zero feedback, I also can't learn from your experience or try to improve it for others.

 

That's the frustrating part - no written feedback.

 

I know there is no way to please everyone and, especially if its story based, I probably couldn't improve it, but I can say, based on early feedback I even changed who the main enemy was here, so I am always open to refining and improving. 🙂 

 

Said another way - written feedback is always welcomed and appreciated.

 

Oh well - what can you do? 🙂

Here's the more distinctive edits so far but it is not poilished and there are still a few open ideas, namely around Midas and William Langston. Will still progress slowly as I have a lot of RL things going on at the moment.

 

Spoiler

I foresee a lot of testing/tweaking yet, especially on 3.2.

• OLD 3.2 and 4.1 are officially mothballed, though still out there. Might evolve them one day. 4.2 is unpublished
• 2.1. and 2.2 - Decided to make Burke the contact to involve him more and give The Doctor a better Wyvern contact than Delia, later.
• 3.1 - Eden
  • Have not executed this yet, but plan to up the level to 35-40 to make 3.x to focus more on the higher level gold brickers - smelters and AUs. The recent expansion of the Crey mobs make them more interesting at these levels too.
  • M2 - Dr. Creed is now included here in the lab as the main mind behind "Shell" work.
  • M4 - New ally in the digital mission with The Doctor & Number Six which leads to a nicer more integrated reveal about the mainframe voice.
• 3.2 - Kallisti - This big unification of what was 3.3 and 4.2 has been where the bulk of the work is
  • Contacts - In 3.3 you worked with The Doctor and in 4.2 with The New Praetorians, and now it's the doc. The New Praetorians are out of this story now, and instead when there are multiple teams going multiple places, Wyvern leaders fill in where the New Praetorians did.
  • M1 - Infini-Life - this is the same M1 mission from 3.3, though I updated the complex escort/office visit to make the interactions and fights better/more interesting - even changed the map to make it even smaller so the trips to each device as you explore how Infini-Life works is less tedious. Brought in some of the Revenant Shell ideas from what was 3.3 M3 into here too to good effect.
  • M2 - Kingston Heights - this outdoor map was used in both 3.3 and 4.2 and as such is a cross-over of both, integrating the clues and experience from both so the later half of the arc can focus on key 4.2 clues. This was part of why I thought combining these two was a reasonable path - it consolidates the two missions and clues to speed up the pace of the story unfolding. Have one group of Rikti Freakshow in here though as a nod to the old 4.1. 
  • M3 - Gold Bricker Tech Clues - In the old 3.3, after finding clues in Kingston Heights you went to a lab. In the old 4.2 after Kingston Heights clue-finding you went to a warehouse while other teams of New Praetorians went different places - including a lab. Now you go to the Smelting Cauldron - i.e. now Zoe's Skunkworks - and I was able to essentially combine the things you learn from both the 3.3 lab and the 4.2 warehouse. This gave me a nice unique map for a Kingston Height location, was a better use of this map than my old use too. Some of the things in the lab and warehouse were pushed down into earlier arcs too (i.e. Warehouse stuff from 4.2, like Cargo Portals, into the warehouse in 2.3. Lab stuff from 3.3 like Dr. Creed and 4.1 like Transformation Pods, in the 3.1 lab).
  • M4 - Praetoria info - in 4.2 this was covered in two missions and the meat of that is consolidated into this one mission - using the more interesting of the two maps. This also has a side benefit of making the experience in All That Gleams more distinct since there is some overlap there but the map will be distinctive.
  • M5 - Essentially the same as it was though still working out the players and some of the handoffs to 3.3 because of that.
• 3.3 - Grandville
  • Changed the key player is back to Midas from William Langston, though still evaluating.
  • M2 - Not sure if I mentioned previously, but swapped the rescues here (Indigo and Crimson) to The Doctor and Number Six. This makes them known players from before so you're more invested in it. 

• •  

 

 

Edited August 16, 2023 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

I can call this done! Let's talk outcomes of the revamp rather than specifics.

1. MUCH tighter story - By consolidating things from the 15 eliminated missions that were a little empty after the ConDev pirates were removed, into 3.2 and earlier arcs - it is much better pacing to reach the conclusion of the story.
2. More depth - as several one time bosses/encounters are now secondary and tertiary characters with through-lines across arcs.
3. Richer Gold Bricker motivation - Since it is clearer earlier that Midas is missing, this adds additional motivations to the Gold Brickers, and one updated "scene" in particular gives you a better personal encounter with that. Also clearer the frenemy situation with Arachnos and increasing the tension with Aeon. (The fact that Aeon never retaliated after everything that happened in Cap was a real miss on my part before.)
4. Richer Mook story - Their role in spreading Praetorian tech is more present earlier and throughout.
5. Vigilante role reinforced - You are at odds with the City and others, and connected to Wyvern, more consistently.
6. Premise-reinforcing scene locations - the idea that Langston is expanding in hazard zones is reinforced by every arc having one outdoor map there. Removing the St Martial and RWZ arcs concentrates on the expansion. (While The Rikti War Zone technically is a hazard zone, Langston was not expanding there.)

 

In general, I also came up with some more interesting mechanics for a few of the most significant scenes - nothing incredible, but things that make maps a bit more exciting and evolving. Won't spoil them, but pleased with how some of the other little "gameplay" updates impacted the overall experience too. 

 

If you have not taken All That Glitters for a spin, now would be a good time! 🙂

Edited August 26, 2023 by Ankylosaur