Old Arc Tweaks (final tests)

[cranebump]

Greets again, all. I'm going back to my older Ordinary People series, tweaking/fixing/slightly altering them to put into play lessons learned from all my abysmal failures (also known as, How Crane goes through life in general). I think a couple of stalwarts have done them. I know our buddy @Zhym has justifiably demurred because the older stories contain just about everything that would annoy any player - namely timers, defeat alls, and niggling text errors. The story, however, is pretty strong. And since OP1-3 feeds into Leviathan which feeds into Mobius, I think it's worth it to bring it up to speed where it's at least a passable intro into what I think is a decent megatale, with a nice wrapup.

 

So, I'll post status updates on that project, as I complete them. For those who've run them before, and care to note the details, I'll post here, as spoilers. Hoping to get all 3 arcs nipped and tucked by mid-July. Also working on the follow-up story, which takes us in a different, but hopefully still interesting direction. In any case, if you are interested in checking out the "new "old stuff, drop me a line. I'm always looking to improve. Have to, if I want to come close to keeping up with the masters.:-)

 

As of now, OP1: Standard Operating Procedure is refitted and ready. At least, I hope it is...:-)

Spoiler

Retrofit Notes: Ordinary People 1: Standard Operating Procedure

 

• Dropped a lot of descriptive text, like "He grins," etc., in order to keep focus on what the contact is telling you. So, the look is less cluttered, IMHO.
• Dropped in some musing from Joe about how suspicious things look regarding the Skullionz (in order to presage OP2 and OP3 reveals).
• Got rid of all timers. Deleted the one Defeat All in finale.
• Allies are optional, but tried to put them in the line of movement. So you run across them, they get introduced, but you don't have to keep them around.
• Changed placement on most everything in M1, sticking Boss in the front, as he is mainly there to deliver a clue about the Skullionz being sorta forced into the whole Hellions/Skulls equation. 
• M2: Made security guard a rescue, and only one. Gave him runaway verbiage of Let's split up, because the player really doesn't need his help.
• Fiddled with Mutant Hackers, who had annoying rez on minions. DID place the rez on Boss version, though, for people who run bigger spawns, and want the pain.:-)
• Made clue numbering consecutive. I also had several needless clues, esp. at beg/end of mishes, which I dropped, save for the very last one.
• Really wanted to introduce Pep and his toast points here, but there was nowhere to do it.:-)
• Since this is a groundwork piece, just stuck to Wtf is up with these Skullionz? Okay, we have to find this diamond. Great, we got it, but what as all THAT about.
• Added some small details around Powers Division and Amberson, Murray-Davies and Brinell: foreshadowing for OP3.
• Verdict: it's better. Or at least it's tighter and cleaner. Experience helps.:-)

 

 Moving on to OP2: Hope and Bullets. This was a bit easier.

Spoiler

• Tweaked Arc Description to foreshadow ending.
• Streamlined objectives. Removed any Defeat All conditions (mainly boss running away).
• Took out yellow text to indicate dialog, in keeping with standard style.
• Took out extraneous glowies.
• Added some descriptive text to NPCs
• Arc was generally clean, save for the annoying stuff (running bosses, extra glowies, et al).
• Pep still hasn't offered toast points.:-)

 

3's next. If I recall correctly, lots of color-code and such to clean up.

Spoiler

• Woo. Yeah...LOTS of text color formatting. Gets dicey in M4 and Finale. 
• Timers deleted. No failure conditions anywhere.
• Numbering of clues
• Changed text from NPCs to better align with narrative.
• Cleaned up objective text (missing verbs).
• Changed M1 infiltration to feature Skullionz, rather than family.
• GODDAMN the finale fight is hard. Still tweaking that.

 

Edited June 10, 2023 by cranebump