Crane's Short Reviews

[Darmian]

40 minutes ago, TerroirNoir said:

Hmm. Not only is @cranebump apparently writing four excellent AEs PER DAY, he's now overtaking me in the one thing I know how to do on this damn forum!  Insert Muttley noises about here.

I think the two different styles of reviews complement each other.  Although I don't even know if @TerroirNoir's style IS a review, more the ongoing "Adventures of Engineria".

[cranebump]

23 hours ago, TerroirNoir said:

Hmm. Not only is @cranebump apparently writing four excellent AEs PER DAY, he's now overtaking me in the one thing I know how to do on this damn forum!  Insert Muttley noises about here.

Noooooo. Not even close. I am a pale shadow of your transcendent Enginerianess.:-)

[cranebump]

Slow on the updates here. My work week expanded from 4 days to 5, and requires a great deal more brainspace than before. Should be back in the swing of it soon.

 

(but man, am I tired of being tired...it's ridiculous).

[cranebump]

CONTRACT: Indentured Insurgents [ID 54163] by @Dracses

This 2023, 3-mission, L24-30 arc places you in the role of mercenary stepping into a situation involving everyone’s favorite bomb-tossing miners and Arachnos. You start out by “subduing” the Scrappies while rescuing a supervisor. Your services are then retained to look further into things, where, of course, it’s Transformer-ville (er…more than meets the eye).

 

Clever use of: friendly bosses to deliver ambiance; friendly Defend Object as critter spawners; ambushes to keep you on your toes; renaming of supplies as “Protester Barricades” [liked that one a lot]); protester banter; the rivalry between the contact and and an NPC named Milano (Extra points for an American Psycho ref [“fancy business cards”):-); enemy bosses delivering key plot details (so that don’t you don't get massive text pop ups all over the screen (since it triggers by engaging the non-objective boss directly); reskinning objects to fit the story. Just lots of nice little details. 

 

Design issues? Oh, yeah. There’s an incomplete clue in M1 (“Some of the protesters mentioned…” and we never find out who). Repetition of popup and end mish text (both M1 and M2 had this–they end pop and the mish end text is exactly the same). LOOOONG activation timers on final mish glowies (15 seconds. Each). A passel of glowies with no end text (M2). Missing search bar text on the actual M2 glowie objective, followed by Find Mission Exit, but nothing much to fight through (nothing that I saw anyway). Then there’s the past-tense mention of by the contact in M3 of what is ACTUALLY being mined, while I saw no clue of this in the mish preceding it , leading to the exchange: “Remember, we’re mining __________.” (Remember? This is the first I’ve heard of it!). Oh, and…a cake map. Boo.:-)

 

On the whole, I LIKE this story idea. A LOT. I like that the text is clean and clear (edited). I like seeing the Scrapyarders. The plot twist is pretty clever, too. There’s great development of the contact’s personality, and really nice scene setting in M1. But, on the whole, it just not finished yet. Minor design flaws prevent this from shining as bright as it could. As such, we have a Seal of Approval with a very nice sheen on one side, while the other could stand a burnish.

 

PLAY THIS IF: You like to mix it up with Scrapyarders. You're a fan of good character writing. You like glowing green crystals. 

 

NOTE: @Dracses has a dozen stories, many of them created in 2024. Making a note to try another sometime.

[VioLight]

Thank you for this!

[cranebump]

A Contract in Black and Blood [ID64304] by @Jiro Ito 

This SEP 2024 entry places you in the L45-54 range, in the Isles, where you’re asked by Mr. Black of Gadzul Oil  to grab an old tome while offing the inimitable Mr. Bocor (last seen talking [and doing] some nasty ass shite in Port Oakes). Bocor played a major role in my own magic-themed arc, The Bleed (where I offer a perfectly logical explanation for him being such an asshole {a subject for another time, no?}).

 

We jump right in, raid the place, and get an offer to turn on our employer (um, sorry…nope…and anyway, we didn’t finish the job-part of the book — it’s missing). We then are sent after Virgil Tarikoss, and I’m like YEEEAH! -- I don’t like that bastard either! I find Virg hanging out in close proximity with a MM boss with his pets dropped. THAT was a scrum. Having gotten the book, Malta awaits, where I reprogram a Kronos Titan (which shows up as an Ally and starts zotzing people -- MY BUDDY!). I bring back a Soul-Trapped Gem (because my employers have evidently NEVER heard of Wentworth’s). Of course this gem needs a soul to, um, POWER it, so I get sent into the Zig (because every escaped criminal wants to go back to jail to show his progress out there in the real world). After procuring the necessary, er...COMPONENT, I’m asked to pretty-please help with a ritual (that I’m **pretty** sure is going to involve me having my heart devoured, or something of that ilk). Was I right? Well...I’ll just leave you to play it to see.

 

VERDICT: 5/5. Typically well-constructed, cleanly written. A great example of the quality of work this author always presents. There are a lot of objectives, but most of them are optional. So you can delve as far into the bigger story as you see fit. A bit of an “enemies tour,” with some non-standard map selections for at least 1 enemy group (a boon to those who hate caves). Clever bit with the Kronos Titan (Frieeeeeend...), as well as several cameos from the vill side to, er...engage with. All in all, a solidly constructed arc that allows you to choose your pacing. Well done. A Bloody-Black Seal of Shining Approval. PLAY IF: You’re a nasty vill looking to do legwork for fun and profit. OR: if you demand excellently composed missions, with a wide array of choice. A very well-done arc!  

 

Edited November 2 by cranebump

[Jiro Ito]

On 10/30/2024 at 4:21 PM, cranebump said:

A Contract in Black and Blood [ID64304] by @Jiro Ito 

This SEP 2024 entry places you in the L45-54 range, in the Isles, where you’re asked by Mr. Black of Gadzul Oil  to grab an old tome while offing the inimitable Mr. Bocor (last seen talking [and doing] some nasty ass shite in Port Oakes). Bocor played a major role in my own magic-themed arc, The Bleed (where I offer a perfectly logical explanation for him being such an asshole {a subject for another time, no?}).

 

We jump right in, raid the place, and get an offer to turn on our employer (um, sorry…nope…and anyway, we didn’t finish the job-part of the book — it’s missing). We then are sent after Virgil Tarikoss, and I’m like YEEEAH! -- I don’t like that bastard either! I find Virg hanging out in close proximity with a MM boss with his pets dropped. THAT was a scrum. Having gotten the book, Malta awaits, where I reprogram a Kronos Titan (which shows up as an Ally and starts zotzing people -- MY BUDDY!). I bring back a Soul-Trapped Gem (because my employers have evidently NEVER heard of Wentworth’s). Of course this gem needs a soul to, um, POWER it, so I get sent into the Zig (because every escaped criminal wants to go back to jail to show his progress out there in the real world). After procuring the necessary, er...COMPONENT, I’m asked to pretty-please help with a ritual (that I’m **pretty** sure is going to involve me having my heart devoured, or something of that ilk). Was I right? Well...I’ll just leave you to play it to see.

 

VERDICT: 5/5. Typically well-constructed, cleanly written. A great example of the quality of work this author always presents. There are a lot of objectives, but most of them are optional. So you can delve as far into the bigger story as you see fit. A bit of an “enemies tour,” with some non-standard map selections for at least 1 enemy group (a boon to those who hate caves). Clever bit with the Kronos Titan (Frieeeeeend...), as well as several cameos from the vill side to, er...engage with. All in all, a solidly constructed arc that allows you to choose your pacing. Well done. A Bloody-Black Seal of Shining Approval. PLAY IF: You’re a nasty vill looking to do legwork for fun and profit. OR: if you demand excellently composed missions, with a wide array of choice. A very well-done arc!  

 

 

Thanks so much for playing, my friend!  I'm a little embarrassed, as I am in the middle of doing a little rewriting on this one so some bits probably didn't make sense.  I have a larger scheme in mind that I wanted to integrate this into, but it takes me so long to complete these.

 

The escort portion still does not work correctly 😞

 

The Kronos Titan part is my favorite thing I've ever done - that, and when running on /+8, the huge collections of low level citizens that I send flying into the stratosphere with Mighty Judgement.  

[Zhym]

On 11/4/2024 at 6:45 PM, Jiro Ito said:

The escort portion still does not work correctly 😞

 

I just played this (great arc, BTW), and had trouble with that too.  That room with the platforms confuses the heck out of NPCs, I think.

 

Also:

Spoiler

Is the "Mission Complete!" button supposed to come up before defeating Mr. Black?  It seemed odd that it would—but then the closing text says "escaped," not "defeated," so maybe that was intentional.  Seemed a bit weird at the time, though.

 

[Jiro Ito]

2 hours ago, Zhym said:

 

I just played this (great arc, BTW), and had trouble with that too.  That room with the platforms confuses the heck out of NPCs, I think.

 

 

Thanks for playing!  I gave up on the Escort and switched it to Ally.

 

Spoiler comments:

 

Spoiler

Mr. Black doesn't betray you until after you do his bidding, and the mission completes after the portal is clicked so there's no way for me to force the player to confront him.  The way the "betray" feature in the game is done makes it so the mission will complete whether you defeat the Betrayer or not, so it's up to the player whether or not they want to throw hands with Mr. Black.  I could throw something in like "Player must leave through mission entrance door" so the player is forced to run back through and face him, but I try to make things as player-friendly as possible, so I settled on closing the mission text with "escaped" so we're covered whether you fought him or bailed.  Sometimes we gotta do our best within the limits of the system.

 

 

 

On 10/30/2024 at 4:21 PM, cranebump said:

A Contract in Black and Blood [ID64304] by @Jiro Ito 

A bit of an “enemies tour,”

 

 

I originally had some more custom enemy groups, but they pushed my file size over the workable limit so I settled for vanilla groups and added custom AVs to them to do the best I could.

[Zhym]

39 minutes ago, Jiro Ito said:

Spoiler comments:

 

  Hide contents

Mr. Black doesn't betray you until after you do his bidding, and the mission completes after the portal is clicked so there's no way for me to force the player to confront him.  The way the "betray" feature in the game is done makes it so the mission will complete whether you defeat the Betrayer or not, so it's up to the player whether or not they want to throw hands with Mr. Black.  I could throw something in like "Player must leave through mission entrance door" so the player is forced to run back through and face him, but I try to make things as player-friendly as possible, so I settled on closing the mission text with "escaped" so we're covered whether you fought him or bailed.  Sometimes we gotta do our best within the limits of the system.

 

I figured it was something like that.  When in doubt, assume AE limitations.

[cranebump]

2 hours ago, Jiro Ito said:

I originally had some more custom enemy groups, but they pushed my file size over the workable limit so I settled for vanilla groups and added custom AVs to them to do the best I could.

I didn't mean that to sound like a negative. Probably should've said what it was: mainly stock vills with a few customs. Sorry about that.

[Jiro Ito]

On 11/8/2024 at 4:35 PM, cranebump said:

I didn't mean that to sound like a negative. Probably should've said what it was: mainly stock vills with a few customs. Sorry about that.

 

All good, i knew what you meant!