The Rook's Gambit - ArcID: 49351 [Heroic]

[Lockely]

Primal Earth, a nexus for superpowered beings, has the unfortunate effect of intersecting with countless other universes. Sometimes, a being slips the veil between worlds and finds themselves on the other side of the looking glass...

 

The Rook's Gambit is my first real foray into the Mission Architect, and I've been crafting it (and recrafting it, and re-recrafting it) over the course of a few years on and off. It's a love letter to both CoH and an RP setting I share with my friends.

Please, let me know what you think, I'd love to improve it more. I know Mission 4 is kinda wonky (kinda is being kind) but I'm not sure how I can exactly fix it while trying to 'do' what I'm trying to 'do.

 

Mission 4 Spoilers below for if you're stuck on it, or want to help refine it once complete:

 

Spoiler

Mission 4 represents a major plot event in our Wonderland RP setting known as the Riots, with some City of Heroes flavor. Both the White Court and Red Court have moved onto all out war, after the White Queen is brutally murdered. Citizens are being detained, cursed, and even executed. The Cardsmen are out in force and unluckily for them, our hero(s) step through the portal just in time to turn the tide.

 

I initially had the White Knight and the Radical Forlorn as Allies you had to find independent of everything else, but I read on here about setting them as Escorts to help your players find mission tasks. This has been... only partly successful. I'm welcome to any and all feedback on how I could improve this mission in particular. I know AE is limited, but I'd really want to make this one shine out of them all if possible.

 

Removed Escort and Returned to Allies as it just simply wasn't working out and caused some players to have softlocked missions. Womp Womp.

 

 

Updates/Patch Notes

 

Spoiler

Patch Notes

1/30/24

 

Overall:

- Added description bios to all the Red Rooks

Mission 4:

- Reordered objective spawns so nothing is multiple except for thematic spawns and optionals
- Reworked Escorts back to Allies (no more waypoints but no more jankiness where it wont move on either)
- Applied Fire Circle animation to captives to make them easier to see
- Adjusted boss standing animations to play anims with effects

 

2/5/2024

 

Overall:
- Added some optional Lore glowies
- Gave the text boxes both a readability and style pass for mission titles. 
- Added tips to missions where optional lore clues are as well as number that can be found.

 

2/6/2024

 

Enemy Group (Steam Punks/Red Rooks)
- Switched powersets on the upgraded Cardsmen to reduce the over prevalence of endurance draining sets while still maintaining theme.

- Added one Lieutenant Cardsmen with a little bit of energy drain, as a treat.

 

Mission 4

- Added Stage Numbers to each phase of the mission, culminating in seven stages in total

- Updated mission description to advise how long the mission is, stage wise, so you have a sense of progress.

 

2/8/2024

 

Mission 1

- Updated pre-mission tip based on in-game feedback to make glowies easier to find.

 

2/26/2024

 

Various Missions

- Fixed typos/grammar provided by player feedback

- Added [Bonus Clue] to bonus lore clues

 

Mission 4

- Changed required civilian capture to have flashier glow for pickup

 

2/28/2024

 

Mission 4

- Fixed the Red Queen's info text.

 

 

 

Thank you everyone for taking the time to play it!

Edited February 28 by Lockely
Patch notes 2/28/2024

[Kyksie]

A very well written mission, where the player works for contact Mark Freeman, who is investigating the appearance of a new gang in Overbrook. It's the 'steampunk' gang, a custom group with about a dozen members, all with unique powers and well done costumes, although many have generic bios. The writing is excellent throughout, with believable dialog and lots of details.

 

However, on the aforementioned mission 4, I defeated absolutely every single enemy on the map except the GM, but the mission wouldn't end. I think it was the "Red Bishop" or something.

[Lockely]

6 hours ago, Kyksie said:

A very well written mission, where the player works for contact Mark Freeman, who is investigating the appearance of a new gang in Overbrook. It's the 'steampunk' gang, a custom group with about a dozen members, all with unique powers and well done costumes, although many have generic bios. The writing is excellent throughout, with believable dialog and lots of details.

 

However, on the aforementioned mission 4, I defeated absolutely every single enemy on the map except the GM, but the mission wouldn't end. I think it was the "Red Bishop" or something.

 

Thank you for playing. Mission 4 is a nightmare and I might just convert the escorts back to Allies, because their pathing in that map is *very bad* and if you don't take them where they need to go *exactly* it won't spawn the next step. I will just have to live with the fact that it's a needle in a haystack kinda thing.

Good note on the bios, I made them so long ago I forgot to write stuff up. Everyone up to Mission 4 should now have a Bio, and I'll try and get the Red Court written tonight.

Edit:
I've added bios to all mob types and refactored Mission 4 to change the Escorts back to Allies. I hope it's solvable now, if a bit harder to find everything once more.

Edited January 31 by Lockely

[Lockely]

Update: 2/5/2024

Added some optional Lore glowies and gave the text boxes both a readability and style pass for mission titles. 
Added tips to missions where optional lore clues are as well as number that can be found.
 

[Molubdos]

Played as: Rad/Willpower Scrapper, Level 50+1, Incarnate Powers, solo.

Difficulty: +0x6 on Mission 1, +0x4 for remaining missions, Boss/No AV

 

Critters: You're certainly not playing around with the End Drain on some of those mobs! Definitely a shock to those who are used to soloing with higher enemy counts (unless you have good End Drain/Recovery debuff resistance or very high Energy def).

 

Structure: Generally strong pacing, imo. Special honour goes to Mission 4 - ignoring the 'ooh, shiny challenge' distraction of the Giant Monster, Mission 4 is very well-focused for an outdoor mission - filling the map with staggered events works really well on that front while going for the objectives.

(Small suggestion in spoiler, personal opinion but )

Spoiler

Maybe it's just me being a distractable fool, but just to slightly focus it some more (and to strengthen the hint that allies show up as you progress, not just found around the map off the bat), perhaps indicate the main objective as "Stage (X/??)" (at least after the first objective, maybe obfuscate the final number until later/the last stage?) to indicate that 'There's more you can do here' before you rush into the GM fight with just the one ally and a vaguely-convinced (i.e. I pulled the fight across to them) neutral party.

 

Overall: Good fun, despite the challenge the enemies gave me, with good pacing and solid writing to fit things together.

[Lockely]

14 hours ago, Molubdos said:

Played as: Rad/Willpower Scrapper, Level 50+1, Incarnate Powers, solo.

Difficulty: +0x6 on Mission 1, +0x4 for remaining missions, Boss/No AV

 

Critters: You're certainly not playing around with the End Drain on some of those mobs! Definitely a shock to those who are used to soloing with higher enemy counts (unless you have good End Drain/Recovery debuff resistance or very high Energy def).

 

Structure: Generally strong pacing, imo. Special honour goes to Mission 4 - ignoring the 'ooh, shiny challenge' distraction of the Giant Monster, Mission 4 is very well-focused for an outdoor mission - filling the map with staggered events works really well on that front while going for the objectives.

(Small suggestion in spoiler, personal opinion but )

  Hide contents

Maybe it's just me being a distractable fool, but just to slightly focus it some more (and to strengthen the hint that allies show up as you progress, not just found around the map off the bat), perhaps indicate the main objective as "Stage (X/??)" (at least after the first objective, maybe obfuscate the final number until later/the last stage?) to indicate that 'There's more you can do here' before you rush into the GM fight with just the one ally and a vaguely-convinced (i.e. I pulled the fight across to them) neutral party.

 

Overall: Good fun, despite the challenge the enemies gave me, with good pacing and solid writing to fit things together.

 

Thank you for the test! Yeah, I thought the Energy/Electric theme was a good fit for a group using steam-punk theming but maybe I overdid it? I rarely chose custom power selections, relying on the programmed difficulty selectors (Standard for Minions, Hard for Lieuts, Bosses, and EVs). I was kinda designing by the seat of my pants, so maybe I should go back and actually plot out who has what and see if I can adjust a bit to make things slightly less like fighting an army of Malta Sappers. I initially did most of my building and testing when I was in the level 20s, so even I have gotten surprised on recent tests. The Advanced Prototype in Mission 5 absolutely demolished my Bots/FF MM in half a second on one test. Only allies got the extra powers because I wanted them to feel like they *mattered* to the mission and with them you'd stand a chance against a GM solo. 

I actually created both male and female versions of each type of mob, with both ranged (dressed in Red Vests) and melee (dressed in White Vests) in each category, with the exception of the robotic ones since they're meant to be mass produced. 

 

Mission 4 notes:
 

Spoiler

Not a bad idea, I'll have to think on it a bit to see how it would do best. I tried to make the map *come alive* as the player pushed back the Red Queen's forces and encouraged the White Court to take back their freedom, so it gets busier with battles and optional thematic objectives as it goes, but with all the main objectives having super bright spell effects. I wish there was another map to get across the vibe I was going for, because this one has some really obnoxious spawns at times, and being that it's an Outdoor map I have no control of where anything goes. 

 

Edit:

After sleeping on it, I updated the pre-mission note with the following:

 

NOTE: The objectives on this map are staggered in seven stages. It's a big map, please have patience as you search around it. You do not need to engage the Giant Monster in the middle, but if you want the challenge, it should be doable even solo with the allies you will meet prior to the final stage. 

 

I then added stage numbers to each objective so you have a sense of progress, provided you actually read the note.

 

Edit:

Further discussion on Enemy Powersets Below the Spoiler

 

Spoiler

Steam Punks / Red Rooks Enemy Group Breakdown:

Name	Type	M/R	Primary	Secondary
Cardsman	Minion	Melee	War Mace	Shield Defense
Sweep (Melee)	Minion	Melee	Street Justice	Dual Pistols
Sweep (Ranged)	Minion	Ranged	Beam Rifle	Devices
Prototype	Lieutenant	Melee	Energy Melee	Electric Armor
Cardsman v1.5	Lieutenant	Melee	Energy Melee	Electric Armor
Pipecleaner	Lieutenant	Melee	Staff Fighting	Willpower
Tesla Coil	Lieutenant	Ranged	Beam Rifle	Electricity Manipulation
Advanced Prototype	Boss	Ranged	Energy Blast	Electric Armor
Castle v.27	Boss	Ranged	Energy Blast	Electric Armor
Flying Fox	Boss	Ranged	Electrical Blast	Time Manip
Steamdriver	Boss	Melee	Titan Weapons	Fiery Aura
Locke	Elite Boss	Melee	War Mace	Shield Defense

 

So, I wasn't even remotely aware when making these that basically *everything* listed under both Electricity and Energy, be they Defensive or Offensive, was going to have an END Drain in it somewhere.

I'm all ears for making some adjustments, I just don't have the best experience playing all the sets in the game to really know what has/does what, so I welcome some feedback or suggestions on how we can keep the theme but not make you want to eat 4000 Blue Candies every pull in Mission 5 especially.

 

Edit 2: 
I'm an idiot. Locke built Adeline (Red Knight)'s armor and weapon system. She uses a wrist mounted flamethrower. I can replace their energy melee/energy blast attacks for fire, cutting their END drain in half. That should still give them a bite but not be like the Drink Your Milkshake guy to your entire Endurance bar.

Edit 3:

Okay, toned down the massive amount of endurance drain on the bots. New table looks as follows:
 

Name	Type	M/R	Primary	Secondary
Cardsman	Minion	Melee	War Mace	Shield Defense
Sweep (Melee)	Minion	Melee	Street Justice	Dual Pistols
Sweep (Ranged)	Minion	Ranged	Beam Rifle	Devices
Cardsman v1.2	Lieutenant	Melee	Energy Melee	Devices
Cardsman v1.5	Lieutenant	Melee	Fiery Melee	Energy Aura (w/o Energy Drain)
Pipecleaner	Lieutenant	Melee	Staff Fighting	Willpower
Tesla Coil	Lieutenant	Ranged	Beam Rifle	Electricity Manipulation
Castle v.27	Boss	Ranged	Fire Blast	Invulnerability
Flying Fox	Boss	Ranged	Electrical Blast	Time Manip
Steamdriver	Boss	Melee	Titan Weapons	Fiery Aura
Locke	Elite Boss	Melee	War Mace	Shield Defense

 

This keeps them within the bounds of the set, while still allowing for a little endurance drain, as a treat. @Molubdos thank you for the feedback! 

 

Edited February 6 by Lockely

[ZamuelNow]

Bear with me, old habits die hard: 

 

Spoiler

Mission 1 contact dialogue:
"I just cant shake the feeling"

The word "can't" is missing the apostrophe

 

Mission 1 return from mission dialogue
"Anything out of the ordinary, or just some another pop-up gang of the week looking to establish turf?"

Grammatically this should probably be either "just some other" or "just another"

 

Tesla Coil bio
Don't let the looks be decieiving, or you may be in for a shock.

"deceiving". Also, the grammar feels slightly off but might not be wrong.

 

Mission 3 outro
Geat job clearing out the...

"Great"

 

Mission 4 contact waiting dialogue
They're waiting for you [name], in the portal chamberrrr.

Don't know if you leaned on the "r" by accident or it's supposed to represent the contact deliberately slurring the syllable since there isn't also an extra "e".  Also, I forgot to check the waiting dialogue in mission 1-3.  It was fine in mission 5.

 

 

Overall, a good and complete arc that's filled with detail.  I got a feeling like I was missing something but in reading the thread, I see it's based on a RP.  On the subject of harder critique...

 

So, I'm not sure what the general AE story culture is on Homecoming but on Live it was considered slightly bad form to leave an arc as 1-54.  Quite simply, do you think a level 1 character could complete the arc?  Even something as a wide as 25-54 can work at times.  I played the arc with something lower than lvl 25 but that's on me.  I walked into this eyes wide open.

 

As far mission 4, the outdoor map struggle is real.  I'll have to mentally chew on the right suggestions for it since I see you tried things that didn't work.  Part of me thinks the destroyed Atlas map is badly coded and not good to use due to the obscuring smoke but it is the one most recognizable as an apocalypse situation.  And you do give warnings on the length.

[cranebump]

Destroyed AP map IS a toughie. I haven't run this yet, but was planning to for next set of reviews.

[Lockely]

53 minutes ago, ZamuelNow said:

Bear with me, old habits die hard: 

 

  Hide contents

Mission 1 contact dialogue:
"I just cant shake the feeling"

The word "can't" is missing the apostrophe

 

Mission 1 return from mission dialogue
"Anything out of the ordinary, or just some another pop-up gang of the week looking to establish turf?"

Grammatically this should probably be either "just some other" or "just another"

 

Tesla Coil bio
Don't let the looks be decieiving, or you may be in for a shock.

"deceiving". Also, the grammar feels slightly off but might not be wrong.

 

Mission 3 outro
Geat job clearing out the...

"Great"

 

Mission 4 contact waiting dialogue
They're waiting for you [name], in the portal chamberrrr.

Don't know if you leaned on the "r" by accident or it's supposed to represent the contact deliberately slurring the syllable since there isn't also an extra "e".  Also, I forgot to check the waiting dialogue in mission 1-3.  It was fine in mission 5.

 

 

Overall, a good and complete arc that's filled with detail.  I got a feeling like I was missing something but in reading the thread, I see it's based on a RP.  On the subject of harder critique...

 

So, I'm not sure what the general AE story culture is on Homecoming but on Live it was considered slightly bad form to leave an arc as 1-54.  Quite simply, do you think a level 1 character could complete the arc?  Even something as a wide as 25-54 can work at times.  I played the arc with something lower than lvl 25 but that's on me.  I walked into this eyes wide open.

 

As far mission 4, the outdoor map struggle is real.  I'll have to mentally chew on the right suggestions for it since I see you tried things that didn't work.  Part of me thinks the destroyed Atlas map is badly coded and not good to use due to the obscuring smoke but it is the one most recognizable as an apocalypse situation.  And you do give warnings on the length.

 

 

All wonderful feedback, thank you! I'll get those typos cleared up after the weekend, as I'm away for a few days.

In terms of level scale, I did clear it on several characters of varying levels over the last--- god two years--- as I've been developing it. My main character wasn't even 20 when I started this arc, for what it's worth. It's not a bad idea to change it so folks are exemplar'd up though. For what it's worth, I don't know about any "culture" around AE missions, I just create, iterate, test, and post. I didn't even consider that a level 1 would even access it, I just wanted the widest range possible for people to play it under. I'll take that under consideration for a future update for sure.

 

In terms of destroyed AP, gosh I wish there was a better map to get across the ambiance I want for that specific mission. It's a horridly programmed map, and it's the main reason I've spent so long iterating on it. I took a six month break from this thing before diving back in because it was frustrating me so much, before I tried a half dozen other solutions and then started really staggering things out. One change I've been tossing around is the mandatory captive releases. I'm planning on adjusting their animation to make them stand out a bit more. It's-- not as thematic to have every major objective have bright green fire emanating from it, but AE options are limited.

Very much appreciate the feedback, thank you for giving it a play!

[cranebump]

That AP map has SUCH potential. I was using it at the beginning of an arc in the Mobius storyline. I finally abandoned it after getting some feedback from @TerroirNoir and @Zhym (among others), running it myself (again) afterward, and seeing how right they were. At this point, I figure it's a good map for boss fights/rescues, provided the bosses have some good animation as a "tell" (aura that stands out; floating captured animation, etc.--same things you mentioned, above). Even so, the visibility thing really is an issue, even in those circumstances. If you can make it work, more power to you. But, in keeping with the whole "path of water" thing, I've found myself sometimes working in reverse to fix an issue (that is, modifying the narrative to fit the design mechanism, rather than the other way 'round). Again, whatever works. When I run it, I'll mainly be focused on solid, clear narrative, and competent design. For me, if the former is good, I'm fine with a few elements that are, for lack of a better term, "annoying."

[ZamuelNow]

24 minutes ago, Lockely said:

For what it's worth, I don't know about any "culture" around AE missions, I just create, iterate, test, and post.

 

Nah, you're good.  People have different styles and I'm still navigating the differences from Live.  One actual problem with 1-54 is that it shows up in My Level search regardless of level.

 

As far as maps...one possible option, if you opted to forgo the Giant Monster, is to use maps pulled from Mercy Island.  Mercy has been canonically rocked by a earthquake and the Darwin's Landing neighborhood is a destroyed area.  It's an option if you're okay with the alternate world not looking like Atlas and Mercy has a more European than American design.  But I haven't tested all the Mercy maps to see the usability and I think most are small which might be an issue.  Also, they might have their own outdoor map nuttiness.

[cranebump]

Couple observations:

Spoiler

*White Rabbit is late, but did not run off when rescued, which would seem the logical response?

*You have 3 Trashcans searched for clues as your obj text. Probably should be X trashcans to search

*Rather than announce the optional clue in your send off text, you can instead place it in mission with the word "optional" in it (as in Seek out additional clues (optional). Works either way, save this version keeps it within the actual mish. Other option is just to have the glowie, and label the text as Bonus Clue. Otherwise, fine as is.

*By the way, great use of a boss as an ambush mechanic (Defeat the Ambush). So simple. Why did I never think of that?

*I hate that AP map. Lots of running around. Got everything done. Just takes time and a great deal of backtracking. Can't be helped with that thing, though.

*Nice touch -- Clockwork King map from Synapse.

*Erasing the whiteboard. HA! Nice

Writeup will appear soon. Nice work!

 

[Lockely]

Detailed reply under the spoiler.

 

Spoiler

3 hours ago, cranebump said:

*White Rabbit is late, but did not run off when rescued, which would seem the logical response?

 

Yeah, it's a bug I ran into with a LOT of the Outdoor maps. They don't have actual doors programmed so "Run to Nearest Door" does nothing. Actually, almost all escorts and rescues do nothing once they're complete on most outdoor maps. It's a problem I've reported in the Bugs section (I also proposed they should just run to the mission entrance in that thread). She was a late addition to the map as I wanted to throw in a Wonderland hint early and give you something to focus on before you go digging into trash.

 

3 hours ago, cranebump said:

*You have 3 Trashcans searched for clues as your obj text. Probably should be X trashcans to search

 

Good Point! I'll add in that with the typos noted on Zamuel's playthrough when I return home from my vacation!

 

3 hours ago, cranebump said:

*Rather than announce the optional clue in your send off text, you can instead place it in mission with the word "optional" in it (as in Seek out additional clues (optional). Works either way, save this version keeps it within the actual mish. Other option is just to have the glowie, and label the text as Bonus Clue. Otherwise, fine as is.

 

I honestly just wanted to avoid navigation bloat. It's a personal pet peeve of mine when I get into a mission and the nav bar is overflowing with objective text. Feeds my ADHD task paralysis so I kept it in the send-off. What I could do is add 1 of 3, 2 of 3, 3 of 3 into the clues description to give you a way to track them per mission?

 

3 hours ago, cranebump said:

*By the way, great use of a boss as an ambush mechanic (Defeat the Ambush). So simple. Why did I never think of that?

 

Just working around the shop map having like, zero spawn types available! Drives me nuts too. I initially wanted to have a rescue at the start, but of course its not available in that map either.

 

3 hours ago, cranebump said:

*I hate that AP map. Lots of running around. Got everything done. Just takes time and a great deal of backtracking. Can't be helped with that thing, though.

 

It's a struggle, I really want it to feel like you're stepping into the middle of a Civil War that just went hot shortly before you arrived. There are other ruined maps but this is the only one I've found that hits the atmosphere properly (and has the GM for a big DANGER spot). If you read my spoilers on the first post, you can see I tried a bunch of things including escorts, but the escorts break really badly too, so I returned it back to allies with one by one mission objectives that are staggered. I want to return back to this world in a future installment as well, so saving the 'burned down but not actively burning' maps for those is a plan.

 

3 hours ago, cranebump said:

*Nice touch -- Clockwork King map from Synapse.

*Erasing the whiteboard. HA! Nice

 

Yee! That map really *clicked* it all together. The thought of having him be their universe's Clockwork King didn't really tick until I was testing maps and then went, "Wait, the Red King isn't the Clockwork King... it's the creator! Duh!"

 

Thank you for giving it a play! I'll make those text adjustments when I get home. I'm about ready to call this one 'done-done' and move onto my next project because you can only fiddle with something for so long before you just decide it's as good as it'll get for a first showing. Very much appreciate the plays!

Edited February 24 by Lockely
Typos, so many typos. Curse this new keyboard.

[Lockely]

After watching @LordRassilon play it on stream, I've made a few final fixes, but I am comfortable calling this one done-done unless a future patch breaks something.

Thank you to everyone who helped playtest and provided feedback! Keep on the lookout for my 1-24 Goldside Mission coming to a WIP near you soon!

[LordRassilon]

That was a wild ride.  It was thoroughly fun!  Keep up the good work!