The Atlas Chronicles

[raven9864]

Greetings Homecoming!

 

Last night I wrote a new installment related to my previous two arcs, The Grave and the Old & Lojac's Brrain.

 

The title of it is "Paper Tigers".

 

To make sure any players can find my connected stories (I know you're out there, just waiting for now) I have repackaged all 3 entries with the visible title blurb "The Atlas Chronicles" showing. Story Descriptions will detail what arcs are recommended before playing the one selected.

 

In addition to revamping the titles, I've realized something about the lack of gameplay I'm getting on my missions. Thus far, up to "Paper Tigers" I've used custom enemies 90% of the time. My understanding is that they don't give xp. Is this a concern for the majority of AE players? Do you choose standard or AE rewards most often? For "Paper Tigers" I used standard enemies.

 

"The Grave and the Old" is 4 linked missions. "Lojac;s Brain" is 3. They're both designed in a way that forces the player to go thru the entire suite of missions to get the story. (These are all heavy story-based content) You can't do one or two, leave and then come back where you left off. For this reason, going forward I will be posting all chapters as separate missions linked by title and supporting descriptive text.

 

Having said that, "Paper Tigers" is a stand alone spinoff story. It relates indirectly to "The Grave and the Old", so you will have a richer story experience if you've played that, but nothing will be lost by not having done it first. This is a storytelling style I will experiment with going forward...a main arc with small branching one-offs.

 

But for now, please give "Paper Tigers" a try, and as always I welcome any and all feedback. It will help me grow a a creator, and that's what I want. To be able to provide quality content that strikes the balance between story and reward. To give you something enjoyable.

 

Thanks for listening, Homecoming.

 

~Paws 

[Jiro Ito]

12 hours ago, raven9864 said:

In addition to revamping the titles, I've realized something about the lack of gameplay I'm getting on my missions. Thus far, up to "Paper Tigers" I've used custom enemies 90% of the time. My understanding is that they don't give xp. Is this a concern for the majority of AE players? Do you choose standard or AE rewards most often? For "Paper Tigers" I used standard enemies.

 

 

It depends what you mean by custom.  If you make your own powersets, ie one guy who has Dominate, Char, Rain of Arrows, Jack Frost, Granite Armor, Singularity, Headsplitter, etc; a bunch of powers from all kinds of different powersets, then they will not grant xp.  

 

If you're making your own enemies but using existing powersets (fire blast/super reflexes, etc), then they will grant experience.

 

Personally, I don't care about xp within AE missions unless I'm farming.  When I play storymodes, I'm usually using lvl 50 characters that are fully built, even when exempted down, so it doesn't matter much to me.  

[cranebump]

Gave it a run this morning:

Spoiler

Oh, man. THIS is an annoying little thing, but:

The "V" fell out of the color coding. If you've exceeded text limit, you'll have to delete the coding to fix it. I've done this MANY times.

 

Personal preference, but, as far as color-coding, I feel less is more. The fewer highlighted things to look at, the more each stands out (well, I feel that NOW - some of my older stuff used colors). But-that's just a personal thing. Your style is your style.

 

M1: Objectives lined up soooo smooth. Those med stations all appeared in the same room. Box was up front, with a passel of guards in front of it. Nice.

I stealthed this one room, 'cause:

Dat's a big matzo ball there, sonny... (I had to clear them anyway during the escort so...)

 

Truck room. Turned my back on the hag, thanks to a Bone Guard rushing me. Got locked down and killed. Hubris. Does it every time. Rezzed in mish and wrapped up.

 

Mother Box: had to check to see IIRC (Jack Kirby reference). Yep. Memory still works.:-)

 

Escort falling over at exit=nice touch.

 

M2: Color coding objectives=feel like they should just be normal white, but no compelling argument as to why, save for consistency:

Then again the # pops this way, so...all good, I guess. Again-a preference, my rationale being it follows the style in-game.

 

So nice when this happens:

I've never used these yellow barrels. They show up great. I'll need to utilize them sometime.

 

After a bit of slogging through those gd muck things, I stopped mucking around and just went after them whole hog, esp the Trolls. The holds and such are dicey, so I threw down my attacks hard and fast to melt as many as I could. Works fine, unless they get the drop, which they did a couple times. No deaths this time. Coinspinner...you are NOT helping, man.

 

Well, THAT'S a pisser:

Boss is above the minions. Boo. Trying a snipe first. We'll see if I can cull the box-carrying LTs.

Great...didn't kill the one I sniped, AND got the boss and a heavy.

 

After a bit of jousting, down he went. Sheesh. These things can take some damage.

 

Mish ran great! Coinspinner didn't do a damned thing, but I assume he's set not to do a damned thing, so...mission accomplished.:-)

 

M3: Creepy Grendel's Mother vibe.:-) 

 

I assume "sanction" means KILL 'EM ALL! I'm hoping for a nice, not too big map. And not many trolls. And none of those Void creeps. I also don't like bullets. They hurt. A lot.:-)

 

Don't know if you wanted to amend this, but:

Default text here. I mention because you're other guys have custom text.

 

Ahhhh...reminds me of those ol' sewer runs...

 

So I spawn the ambush near me, set up and lay down lead. I get hit by ONE salvo, and:

Thankfully, they all dead. But a couple more of those...

 

Man, someone without any defenses against holds is gonna be screwed. Plant holds=no joke. Blaster defiance helps, when I don't wipe mobs.

 

So, I'm only running on x2, and:

More matzo balls...Lock n' load, kemosabes...

 

About those holds:

Two can play at that game, f***er.:-)

 

Kraven cravenly slams me from behind before we get into a running firefight down the corridor (always check corners, Crane, you dumbass). After he goes down:

Hmmm...well that's interesting. Mommy's looking a bit...artificial...

 

Another color coding thing:

 

The MISH END clue reads more like it should be the ARC END clue, but we'll see what we have.

 

Ahhh...you gain access to a base. How cool is THAT? Innovative!

 

VERDICT: It's 5/5. Really well done. Nice clues. I'm a sucker for easter egg titles, so stuff like Down with the sickness resonates. Nice job. My dude already has a base and a group, so I cannot accept the invitation, but maybe on another toon.

 

Thanks for the exceptional work. I'll take a look at the next one.

 

Crane

 

 

 

Edited August 6, 2023 by cranebump

[cranebump]

Paper Tigers:

Spoiler

Mish level is lower than previous, so it feels a bit like a step backward, but let's reserve judgment to see what's actually inside.

 

Heh...I have a Linked-in profile.:-) (I am one stupid-ass vigilante. Punisher wouldn't do that. [would he?]).:-)

 

Timbuk3 ref (future's so bright). Yes, I actually bought that stupid album back in the day. (Life is Hard is a good song, though-I THINK that's the name).

 

Narratively, you have a clever "in" with subsequent Trust Fund mishes. Assuming the character "joins" the team, they can now be recruited to do stuff for the TF. This means you don't have to throw out a lot of background as to why they're helping out. They're in the group, so, of course, they'll jump right in. Smart move.

 

Wtf? WHERE ARE MY SEWERS?:-)

 

First tweak:

You want that to be "X Files to find," or something.

 

Wind Eagle reminds me of that Raven character guy in the other super hero game who greets you in the frozen zone. 

Or rather, THIS guy. Just an observation. Not a criticism or anything.

 

WE follows me, but doesn't fight. I guess I'm being evaluated, right?

 

Spotted a unclickable desk in a corridor on floor 1. LOOKS like an objective, but we'll see.

 

On the initial objective (files), It looks like I have "3 places to search," or something to that effect.

 

Use of END MISH clues works pretty well as a means of getting some extra info in there. All the clues, in general, are well done. The VP tried to run, btw. Didn't work well for him.:-)

 

Looks clean, hombre. Keep it up!

 

Edited August 6, 2023 by cranebump

[raven9864]

8 hours ago, Jiro Ito said:

 

It depends what you mean by custom.  If you make your own powersets, ie one guy who has Dominate, Char, Rain of Arrows, Jack Frost, Granite Armor, Singularity, Headsplitter, etc; a bunch of powers from all kinds of different powersets, then they will not grant xp.  

 

If you're making your own enemies but using existing powersets (fire blast/super reflexes, etc), then they will grant experience.

 

Personally, I don't care about xp within AE missions unless I'm farming.  When I play storymodes, I'm usually using lvl 50 characters that are fully built, even when exempted down, so it doesn't matter much to me.  

 

Thank you for your feedback. I'll take the powerset info into consideration going forward.

 

~Paws

[raven9864]

2 hours ago, cranebump said:

Paper Tigers:

  Reveal hidden contents

Mish level is lower than previous, so it feels a bit like a step backward, but let's reserve judgment to see what's actually inside.

 

Heh...I have a Linked-in profile.:-) (I am one stupid-ass vigilante. Punisher wouldn't do that. [would he?]).:-)

 

Timbuk3 ref (future's so bright). Yes, I actually bought that stupid album back in the day. (Life is Hard is a good song, though-I THINK that's the name).

 

Narratively, you have a clever "in" with subsequent Trust Fund mishes. Assuming the character "joins" the team, they can now be recruited to do stuff for the TF. This means you don't have to throw out a lot of background as to why they're helping out. They're in the group, so, of course, they'll jump right in. Smart move.

 

Wtf? WHERE ARE MY SEWERS?:-)

 

First tweak:

You want that to be "X Files to find," or something.

 

Wind Eagle reminds me of that Raven character guy in the other super hero game who greets you in the frozen zone. 

Or rather, THIS guy. Just an observation. Not a criticism or anything.

 

WE follows me, but doesn't fight. I guess I'm being evaluated, right?

 

Spotted a unclickable desk in a corridor on floor 1. LOOKS like an objective, but we'll see.

 

On the initial objective (files), It looks like I have "3 places to search," or something to that effect.

 

Use of END MISH clues works pretty well as a means of getting some extra info in there. All the clues, in general, are well done. The VP tried to run, btw. Didn't work well for him.:-)

 

Looks clean, hombre. Keep it up!

 

 

Spoiler

 Yes indeed, I will have to back out and re-edit. Following your input, I may eliminate the color coding on the nav bar going forward. For now, its consistent across too many missions to rewrite. 🙂

 

M1: The map choices really help with grouping on multiple Collect objectives. I ran a couple different maps in test to see how they would group. A map with only 3 rooms (most of the time) will have better objective placement if Front/Middle/Back is important for narrative flow. Yes, Mother Box is indeed an easter egg. 🙂 I have several Easter eggs in every mission related to music, comics, and pop culture. I should really do some sort of contest for players to try to find them all. 🙂 The face plant by the escort at the end came from a suggestion by someone, I think it was actually you. 🙂

 

M2: Yeah, I've found you can't color code the Quantity in the objective. It grates on me as well. 🙂 I used the yellow barrels for just that reason, but also because they contain the scary stuff Kraven uses. The Sludge (Muck Fiends/Mud Trolls) are meant to be challenging, and the holds to represent them grabbing you with mudddy pseudopods, etc. Think Clayface from the Batman: TAS toons.  Coinspinner is indeed NOT supposed to be a combatant. As stated in text somewhere, he is solely focused on mentally tracking Lojac's Brain. The hero is literally escorting/bodyguarding him.  I've tried multiple things to get The Void to spawn anywhere but up there, but apparently he has threatened someone in AE with consequences if he appears anywhere else. I took The Void down a bit in power from previous versions. He is supposed to be the toughest member of The Death Knights to appear thus far, his rank in the mythology being "The Harrowed", second in rank only to The Mortis Loci. I plan on posting a dossier on The Death Knights, Strikeforce Alpha, and The Trust Fund et al soon. I'll include specific crunch in it as I'd like for other creators to be able to use them if they so choose. I'd love to see some of us do a shared universe thing with our stories, characters, etc.

 

M3: Spot on. Obsidian Oedipus as a title was chosen with a Grendel flavor in mind. You are very much in my head on this. Grave Hag is indeed a miss on info. I'll have to put that in. I did an overhaul of this critter at some point and forgot to put it in. Good catch, I love that you're reading all the info on everything. Thank you for that. 

 

do you feel the amount of holds is TOO heavy in this? The Sludge are here because I wanted to some connective tissue from previous missions, since they first appeared in The Grave and the Old. That there is continuity and object permanence in my little pocket universe. That consequences have lasting effects. The are a product of Kraven's machinations, but out of his control. Thus, they are there only as an Add A Battle to fight Vschone's Embalmanations.

 

The end clue IS an arc end. I'm glad you read it that way, and that it carries the intent I had in mind.

 

I build bases as a coping skill for my anxiety/depression and I haven't really found a group of players to run with, so I have multiple bases just laying around with only me using them. I hit upon the idea of using my bases/SGs as the basis for my AE arcs, and that I could just gift them to the public. Maybe even spark some RP around them using story material from the AE arcs I'm writing.  Thank you for the compliment too. Its a concept I am really proud of as I want to contribute unique things to the AE environment.

 

Totally would be honored to see one of your alts in one of my bases. I even have a Villain one. The Trust Fund is my Hero base. Striikeforce Alpha is my Vigilante base. The Black Lodge is the HQ of The Death Knights, my Villain Base.

 

Even if you don't commit a toon to joining, please feel free to just take a tour. You're pretty familiar with the lore I've laid down in AE, so I'd love your input on how the bases interact with the AE arcs.

 

Thank you so much for the Verdict.

 

The next one, "Paper Tigers", runs concurrent with The Grave and the Old.

 

Thank you again for your detailed analysis. I appreciate it more than I can express, and I hope you enjoy Paper Tigers. 

 

 

 

 

[raven9864]

3 hours ago, cranebump said:

Paper Tigers:

  Reveal hidden contents

Mish level is lower than previous, so it feels a bit like a step backward, but let's reserve judgment to see what's actually inside.

 

Heh...I have a Linked-in profile.:-) (I am one stupid-ass vigilante. Punisher wouldn't do that. [would he?]).:-)

 

Timbuk3 ref (future's so bright). Yes, I actually bought that stupid album back in the day. (Life is Hard is a good song, though-I THINK that's the name).

 

Narratively, you have a clever "in" with subsequent Trust Fund mishes. Assuming the character "joins" the team, they can now be recruited to do stuff for the TF. This means you don't have to throw out a lot of background as to why they're helping out. They're in the group, so, of course, they'll jump right in. Smart move.

 

Wtf? WHERE ARE MY SEWERS?:-)

 

First tweak:

You want that to be "X Files to find," or something.

 

Wind Eagle reminds me of that Raven character guy in the other super hero game who greets you in the frozen zone. 

Or rather, THIS guy. Just an observation. Not a criticism or anything.

 

WE follows me, but doesn't fight. I guess I'm being evaluated, right?

 

Spotted a unclickable desk in a corridor on floor 1. LOOKS like an objective, but we'll see.

 

On the initial objective (files), It looks like I have "3 places to search," or something to that effect.

 

Use of END MISH clues works pretty well as a means of getting some extra info in there. All the clues, in general, are well done. The VP tried to run, btw. Didn't work well for him.:-)

 

Looks clean, hombre. Keep it up!

 

 

Spoiler

Mission level is lower, as it is not consecutive with the events in Lojac's Brain, but rather takes place before in the middle of The Grave and the Old. It also is indicative of a more rookie hero trying to break into a team, as opposed to a more seasoned hero shopping around.

 

Remember that The Trust Fund is a very financially connected SG. They employ accountants as financial agents, and heroes as personal security, warrant agents, etc. Plus Linked In just sounded funny. The Trust Fund is a very public, corporation style structure, and thus look to employ more Spider-Man and Less Punisher. That's why Strikeforce Alpha is funded by The Trust Fund as a vigilante style sub group that can be publicly denied. 🙂

 

Heh. "X files". 🙂 

 

Wind Eagle is indeed "supervising". Think of him as your Student Driver Teacher. He's hands off unless something drastic happens and he needs to stand in. He is set to "Defensive", so if youre doing well in the game he likely won't step in. Character-wise, he is the first toon I ever made back in Issue 7, and is an indigenous character. I've never played Champions Online or other super games. CoH is just too good to leave.

 

Hmmm...I'll check on that desk. It shouldn't be there as an objective.

 

V.P. shouldn't run either. I'll look into that.

 

Did the offer to join The Trust Fund base/SG show in the end clue(s)?

 

Thank you for the analysis. This is meant to be a light-hearted, snippet that only lightly ties into the meta story. Kind of like the Marvel One Shots in the early MCU flicks. If you've played The Grave and the Old first, you get the tie in. If you haven't played TGa/tO first, its doesn't (shouldn't) impact Paper Tigers (title taken from an old Emerson, Lake, and Palmer song). Its just a fun "Mid credits scene".

 

my next mish will be a one shot from the villains side of things, spotlighting The Death Knights, and tying into Lojac's Brain. Just what DID happen to The Void as his essence floated away? (Dust in the Wind clue)

 

Crane, thank you so much for the effort put into reviewing my works and the great responses. It means a lot.

 

~Paws