Gold Side Resistance Arc "Spirals: Part One."

[Darmian]

In the aftermath of a failure to detonate a neutron device in the Magisterium the Resistance is reeling. PPD died, but so did key Resistance members. Somehow Cole's forces got past Vanessa DeVore's shielding. Odysseus is intent on flushing out a rat. [A Praetorian SFMA prior to the Praetorian War]

 

Arc ID 55109.

 

 

[TerroirNoir2]

56 minutes ago, Darmian said:

In the aftermath of a failure to detonate a neutron device in the Magisterium the Resistance is reeling. PPD died, but so did key Resistance members. Somehow Cole's forces got past Vanessa DeVore's shielding. Odysseus is intent on flushing out a rat. [A Praetorian SFMA prior to the Praetorian War]

 

Arc ID 55109.

 

 

Damn you! I was only one arc away from finishing the Praetorian pre war stuff!

 

Just joking.  I'll get to it too!

[cranebump]

I'll be taking in a 50. An incarnate. Probably a tank. Because you can't be trusted, you bastard.:-)

[Darmian]

1 hour ago, cranebump said:

I'll be taking in a 50. An incarnate. Probably a tank. Because you can't be trusted, you bastard.:-)

Sure sure 😄

[Take One]

I used a level 23 Praetorian and it has that genuine Praetorian feel: I was trounced by ambushes twice.

[cranebump]

6 hours ago, Take One said:

I used a level 23 Praetorian and it has that genuine Praetorian feel: I was trounced by ambushes twice.

Did I not say he couldn't be trusted? HEED THE WARNING, PEOPLE!:-)

[cranebump]

Okay, so just ran this, with @Darmian present (to watch my green bar go eeeee-rrrrr several times). It's a 10 out of 5. Has all the hallmarks of a Darm Arc: lore dive, extensive mission briefs, plenty of clues, great flavor text, and challenging encounters. Bosses were especially tough in some cases (though I ain't sayin' why - you can all get your ass paddled to find out). And it's only part 1! Really, really, really well done (as per the uzh).

[Darmian]

Made a few tweaks here and there.  Mainly smoothing out some text and clarifying some lore. 

 

 

[Darmian]

Which at a higher difficulty seem relentlessly brutal!  Oh well that's the Praetorian effect!

[TerroirNoir2]

1 minute ago, Darmian said:

Which at a higher difficulty seem relentlessly brutal!  Oh well that's the Praetorian effect!

Oh hell.

 

Time to grab Buddy and Marcus when I eventually get to it.

[Darmian]

Spirals: Part Two nearly finished.

[Zhym]

I've just started this, and I gotta say that as someone who always chose to defuse the bomb in the mission this follows, the opening is a little discordant with its talk about the bomb going off and killing some PPD.  In my version of events, I disarmed the bomb on live TV, winning the adulation of millions.

 

Not that that's why I did it.  Nope.  Just a public servant doing his job, that was me...

 

Anyway.  I know it's a limitation of AE—you can't have separate intros based on what the character has done.  Still, maybe there's a way to make the intro a bit more ambiguous about what happened?  Although I guess the timeline where I defused the bomb doesn't leave a lot of room for wondering who the traitor was. :)

[Darmian]

5 minutes ago, Zhym said:

I've just started this, and I gotta say that as someone who always chose to defuse the bomb in the mission this follows, the opening is a little discordant with its talk about the bomb going off and killing some PPD.  In my version of events, I disarmed the bomb on live TV, winning the adulation of millions.

 

Not that that's why I did it.  Nope.  Just a public servant doing his job, that was me...

 

Anyway.  I know it's a limitation of AE—you can't have separate intros based on what the character has done.  Still, maybe there's a way to make the intro a bit more ambiguous about what happened?  Although I guess the timeline where I defused the bomb doesn't leave a lot of room for wondering who the traitor was. 🙂

No, I get that entirely.  Sadly a limit on the options as you say.  I let the option that this is a Resistance AE guide the choice in the end.  I did rewrite that intro a few times, tying myself in knots trying to make both options somehow work.  Alas.

 

 

[Darmian]

10 minutes ago, Zhym said:

Although I guess the timeline where I defused the bomb doesn't leave a lot of room for wondering who the traitor was. 🙂

What would possibly be weirder is you doing this arc, following the above, and the traitor NOT being you.  And that was another of the knots!

[Zhym]

Just now, Darmian said:

I let the option that this is a Resistance AE guide the choice in the end.

Yeah, I get that.  It might make sense to label this as a Crusader arc, though.  I've run Resistance characters through the Praetorian content, and every one, when it gets to the neutron bomb plot, is like, "Mass murder to make a point?  Nah, brah, I'm not down with that." 

[Darmian]

4 minutes ago, Zhym said:

Yeah, I get that.  It might make sense to label this as a Crusader arc, though.  I've run Resistance characters through the Praetorian content, and every one, when it gets to the neutron bomb plot, is like, "Mass murder to make a point?  Nah, brah, I'm not down with that." 

Hmm, in the blurbage?  300 characters and I used 298 😞 I think I did call it Imperial Crusader in the titles.

Edited May 26, 2023 by Darmian

[Zhym]

Just now, Darmian said:

Hmm, in the blurbage?  I think I did call it that in the titles.

Maybe you did and I just missed it.  Maybe a note that this follows on from Wardog's Praetorian arc and assumes that the bomb was detonated?  I mean, yeah, that kind of follows from the "after the detonation" text, but maybe just make it clearer that this assumes a particular result from that arc?

 

I do wonder if there would be a way to make this work with either option, though.  Like instead of talking about the detonation, something vague like, "When the neutron bomb plan went sideways," and then imply that there was a traitor other than the PC.  There's no way it could possibly work with the same PC who did the Wardog arc and chose not to detonate the bomb, but at least it would make sense with a different character. 

 

Or maybe I'm overthinking it. :)

[Darmian]

1 minute ago, Zhym said:

Maybe you did and I just missed it.  Maybe a note that this follows on from Wardog's Praetorian arc and assumes that the bomb was detonated?  I mean, yeah, that kind of follows from the "after the detonation" text, but maybe just make it clearer that this assumes a particular result from that arc?

 

I do wonder if there would be a way to make this work with either option, though.  Like instead of talking about the detonation, something vague like, "When the neutron bomb plan went sideways," and then imply that there was a traitor other than the PC.  There's no way it could possibly work with the same PC who did the Wardog arc and chose not to detonate the bomb, but at least it would make sense with a different character. 

 

Or maybe I'm overthinking it. 🙂

I'll give it a look!

[Zhym]

I just finished Part One, BTW.  Excellent arc, and I'll be doing Part Two soon.  A few quick notes:

 

Spoiler

M2:
- Malone shows up as hostile until captors are killed.  Is that intentional?
- Not entirely clear why some of the Junior Catalogers are targetable and some aren't.  I figured that most of them con as friendly because I'm trying to blend in with the PPD, but then why are others targetable?
- Glad "kidnap" didn't mean "escort."

 

M3:
- Syzygy has default description text?
- "A brutal near fully robotic" needs some hyphens or something.  Maybe "A brutal, near fully-robotic member"?

 

Also glad that "kidnap" in a later mission didn't mean "escort" and that "kill everyone in the base" didn't seem to have an actual defeat-all objective attached. 

 

Oh, and checking the description of the arc, I think, "In the aftermath of a failure to detonate a neutron device in the Magisterium," had me thinking that this was a follow-on from the choice to defuse the bomb.  And it lists morality as "Neutral"—I don't know if that can be changed to "Crusader."

Edited May 26, 2023 by Zhym

[Darmian]

3 hours ago, Zhym said:

M2:
- Malone shows up as hostile until captors are killed.  Is that intentional?

Spoiler

I literally don't know why he is targetable.  It doesn't make him hittable though.

 

3 hours ago, Zhym said:

Not entirely clear why some of the Junior Catalogers are targetable and some aren't.  I figured that most of them con as friendly because I'm trying to blend in with the PPD, but then why are others targetable?

Spoiler

Ah, the ones that ARE targetable have to be or Malone won't spawn properly so he's freeable.  Otherwise he triggers as soon as you click the computer and just runs off having garbled all his dialog.

 

3 hours ago, Zhym said:

Syzygy has default description text?

I'll fix that!

Edited May 26, 2023 by Darmian

[Darmian]

Ok, @Zhym, initial blurb is changed to this:  After failing to detonate a neutron device in the Magisterium the Resistance is reeling. PPD died, but so did key Resistance members. Somehow Cole's forces got past Vanessa DeVore's shielding. Odysseus is intent on flushing out a rat. [A Praetorian Crusader SFMA prior to the Praetorian War]

[Zhym]

5 hours ago, Darmian said:

8 hours ago, Zhym said:

M2:
- Malone shows up as hostile until captors are killed.  Is that intentional?

  Hide contents

I literally don't know why he is targetable.  It doesn't make him hittable though.

Spoiler

Yup.  It's always weird, though, when you can target a mob but not attack.  That "Invalid target" message sometimes manages to confuse me for a moment each time I see it.