More missions to rescue Percy Winkley

[Vanden]

Percy Winkley's supposed to be this Jimmy Olsen-esque character who's getting kidnapped all the time, but that doesn't really come across in-game. You rescue him all of one time, in the first mission in the Lost Cure arc. That's not enough to establish him as a chronic hapless kidnap victim! There need to be more missions to rescue him throughout the game.

 

First, most of the mission maps are littered with spawn points for those old hostage rescue objectives, the really annoying ones tucked into hidden corners, where the hostage will be guarded by two or three weak enemies. Add a small random chance any time we enter a mission map that Percy will spawn at one of the points, being menaced by whoever the villain group of the mission is. If you find him, great! If not, the mission completes as normal. There would be small exceptions to this rule, like for example it couldn't happen if the mission objective is already to rescue him.

 

Next, put police radio missions to rescue him into the mix, but don't force us to escort him out. Those radio missions suck, plus it's easier for him to get kidnapped again if we're not babysitting him.

 

For villains, naturally there should be paper missions where the objective is to kidnap him, and there should be a chance to encounter him for kidnappings during mayhem missions as well.

 

Why do all this? Badges, of course! Heroes can earn a badge for rescuing Percy 10 times, and villains can earn another for kidnapping him 3 times (since there'd be fewer chances for villains to encounter him).

[Take One]

That's hilarious.

[aethereal]

10 minutes ago, Vanden said:

Percy Winkley's supposed to be this Jimmy Olsen-esque character who's getting kidnapped all the time, but that doesn't really come across in-game. You rescue him all of one time, in the first mission in the Lost Cure arc. That's not enough to establish him as a chronic hapless kidnap victim! There need to be more missions to rescue him throughout the game.

You rescue him in the first mission of the second part of Who Will Die.

 

I think there may be other times in the Wards arcs?

[gameboy1234]

Also play through the arcs in First Ward.  Some pretty good stuff there.

 

But sure, adding some more mid level missions with the Midnighters where you have to rescue Percy would be great.  That's a great idea for new arcs for the devs.  For random missions? ... maybe some of the current magic contacts could have a new mission inserted where you need to rescue Percy.  I kinda feel it should be thematic though, not 100% random but part of a theme of the sorts of missions the Midnighters might actually be on. Perhaps more mission types than just magic, but still should be part of a theme.  But that's just my opinion.

 

[srmalloy]

Mercedes Sheldon, IIRC, has her arcs and nothing else; you could add a small chance for her to, whenever you asked her for another mission, to offer a "Rescue Percy Winkley" mission.

[Razor Cure]

Maybe a mission where Percy has been kidnapped by a SUper Villain, who accidentally split him up into 20 clones. And tehn we have to find him on a huge CoT map (like the mission from Unai with malt in a cot cave and 20 hostages).

[Take One]

1 hour ago, Razor Cure said:

Maybe a mission where Percy has been kidnapped by a SUper Villain, who accidentally split him up into 20 clones. And tehn we have to find him on a huge CoT map (like the mission from Unai with malt in a cot cave and 20 hostages).

No! NO! AAAH!

[krj12]

I think Fusionette and Jim Temblor already fill this role. :)

 

 

[UltraAlt]

I always wondered what happened to Peri Winkle.

No one ever uses him because there are much better crayons.

Or maybe the Circle of Thorns finally did something to him.

[Tiger Shadow]

14 hours ago, srmalloy said:

Mercedes Sheldon, IIRC, has her arcs and nothing else; you could add a small chance for her to, whenever you asked her for another mission, to offer a "Rescue Percy Winkley" mission.

After you complete her arcs, she should offer repeatable "Rescue Percy Winkley again" missions.

[Yomo Kimyata]

Just put him in paper/radio missions!

 

[Coyotedancer]

I'm for it.

 

Kai's still "keeping score" of how many times she's had to pull his proverbial fat out of the fire. 🤣 

[srmalloy]

7 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

Just put him in paper/radio missions!

Well, no; he's tied into the Midnighter Club, so the missions with him are connected with him being a Midnighter, and the Midnight Club members are the ones who would be keeping an eye on him to send one of their people after him when he gets into trouble. You don't know Percy from Adam's off ox until Montague Castaneda asks you to rescue him as your first mission in the Midnighter entry arc, so while there's a really low probability that you might encounter him as a hostage in a completely unrelated mission into Oranbega, there's no reason for him to be a regularly recurring victim character in non-midnighter missions.

[DoctorDitko]

Doesn't Monty have a higher level arc (when you "come back later") where you have to rescue Percy again?

 

If I'm misremembering, can Monty have a higher level arc (when you "come back later") where you have to rescue Percy again?

[aethereal]

Paragon wiki shows only one arc for Montague.

[Sakura Tenshi]

pretty sure there's also the Harvey Maylor Arc.

 

But, yeah, that's like, three missions. Probably could be one more.

[Shadowsleuth]

Villainside should get repeatable kidnap Percy Winkley missions.

[srmalloy]

1 hour ago, DoctorDitko said:

Doesn't Monty have a higher level arc (when you "come back later") where you have to rescue Percy again?

No; his "Come back later" is for level 35, and sends you to talk to Imperious, giving you a push into Cimerora. It's just "Talk to Imperious", and awards a single merit.

[Flashtoo]

I don't think of Percy as a chronic hapless kidnap victim - I think of him as a bright young arcanist who hasn't yet learned caution and is just a little too eager to get out and do field work, which ends up constantly getting him into trouble. Less Jimmy Olsen, more Lois Lane.

 

In other words, yes, I agree, more 'rescue Percy' missions please

Edited December 20, 2020 by Flashtoo

[JKPhage]

3 hours ago, Flashtoo said:

I don't think of Percy as a chronic hapless kidnap victim - I think of him as a bright young arcanist who hasn't yet learned caution and is just a little too eager to get out and do field work, which ends up constantly getting him into trouble. Less Jimmy Olsen, more Lois Lane.

 

In other words, yes, I agree, more 'rescue Percy' missions please

If I may take this one step further: If he is a Lois Lane-esque character then I would very much like to see him being greatly relieved and highly flirty with our hero whenever we rescue him, perhaps a little witty banter with a wink and a smile.

 

And yes, I mean all heroes. Percy can be our bisexual icon.

[Dragon Crush]

3 hours ago, JKPhage said:

If I may take this one step further: If he is a Lois Lane-esque character then I would very much like to see him being greatly relieved and highly flirty with our hero whenever we rescue him, perhaps a little witty banter with a wink and a smile.

 

And yes, I mean all heroes. Percy can be our bisexual pansexual icon.

Fixed that for you. Don't forget some heroes are walking piles of rocks, sentient mist, werewolves/tigers, bird people, zombies, alien squids... the list goes on. Don't think it'd be feasible but would be hilarious if he could hit on each in a unique way (ie. did you polish your stones today, get your fur done). I'd go though so many costumes trying to see all the lines.

 

As for an actual bisexual character, maybe have a contact with different missions in different level ranges and go from rescuing boyfriend to rescuing their girlfriend (or reverse, and with the implication that things just didn't work out with the first S/O and they're still friends)

[nightroarer]

How about a 5-mission AE arc where you rescue Percy in each mission, but he gets rekidnapped as he escapes from each one? We could call the arc "Where in the World is Percy Winkley?"

 

Or we could have an arc called "Help Fusionette Rescue Percy Winkley" where you end up having to rescue both of them--each mission.

[Sakura Tenshi]

Totally random note: if I recall, each time we are sent to rescue Percy, he normally gives us some vital info.

 

it actually gives me the headcanon that while kidnap-prone, Percy is pretty good at gathering intel, if only because no villain group in paragon bothers to lock hostages up in secure rooms and instead just stand around them menacingly while otherwise freely discussing their plans.

[Flashtoo]

4 hours ago, Sakura Tenshi said:

Totally random note: if I recall, each time we are sent to rescue Percy, he normally gives us some vital info.

 

it actually gives me the headcanon that while kidnap-prone, Percy is pretty good at gathering intel, if only because no villain group in paragon bothers to lock hostages up in secure rooms and instead just stand around them menacingly while otherwise freely discussing their plans.

Yes, this is my reason for seeing 'bright, but incautious' rather than 'hapless victim.' It also continues to mesh nicely with potential comparisons to a certain investigative reporter!

 

 

Also, for the record, the difference between pan and bi as I've had it explained to me by actual other pan and bi people is not "bi people are attracted to both men and women while pan people are attracted to men, women, and other" but "both bi and pan people are attracted to men, women, and possibly other, but the nuances of the nature of that attraction differ." But that's not a discussion we need to be having in a thread about new mission ideas.

 

 

+1 for combined Fusionette/Winkley hijinks, btw.

Edited December 21, 2020 by Flashtoo

[Dragon Crush]

Ah, well I haven't actually met with anyone who identifies as pan (or at least identifies as such and felt the need to share that info with me) so I may be misusing it, but that was my understanding of the term, at least in more fantasy settings where you have non-human sapients like rock people, robots and extra terrestrials rather than more mundane spectrum that currently exists.

 

 

I do like the idea of Percy getting intel on other things while kidnapped and providing follow up missions, and given the habit of villains of discussing their plans in front of the hostages, think it'd be nice if such a mechanic could be propagated to other hostage rescue missions.