Into the YOUnivese, arc 56454

[sponazgul]

Colleagues, I'd love some feedback on this old arc I revamped, "Into the YOUniverse" - arc 56454. 

 

It's a 5-issues, somewhat science-fictiony arc that is shamelessly inspired by a favorite Fantastic Four plotline I love as well as elements from Rick and Morty.

 

Hey, I'll just share the details from AE:

 

 

[sponazgul]

The missions are technically ranked as 1 - 54, but the beginning mission might be rough for lower level characters. (I should really test that out.) Anyway, I recommend higher end folks for the initial testing.

[Kyksie]

A nice fun mission with an interesting premise. Good writing, plenty of clues and details, and several custom groups complete with costumes and bios. Only downside is a few spelling errors.

[sponazgul]

1 hour ago, Kyksie said:

A nice fun mission with an interesting premise. Good writing, plenty of clues and details, and several custom groups complete with costumes and bios. Only downside is a few spelling errors.

 

Gah! Typos are my DOOM.

Kyksie, thanks for running it, and I'll work on correcting my spelling.

[Forager]

I won't discuss the plot since there's a series of gags and twists. I did laugh out loud at the "Obviously..." send off line.

 

The custom enemies are fun. They were very vibrant and didn't feel like CoH enemies.

 

Spoiler

The first mission with the Celaestions was great. I noticed how sturdy they were, especially compared to the laser constructs, so when they showed back up it appeared as a proper threat.

 

I had a little slow-down on the Portal Corp map that was partially my fault, partially the engine's.

 

Spoiler

I smoked the clone in the first room, but I didn't take care to clear that spawn. We got mixed up with some patrols and I left. I guess that's why it didn't spawn the second one. I went

back to the room and cleared it out after searching the whole building. This is a limitation with the system, because as far as I can tell know the "just the boss" option doesn't function correctly. I should remember that, but there is no indication in-game.

 

I can't really speak on the difficulty as the character I used is fairly powerful.

 

Spoiler

I used a blaster. Low damagae characters might struggle with the Celaestions. They were tough, but manageable. I died once during the final ambush.

 

All in all, fun romp. I got an added bonus in the form of a color combination for my own character that I never thought of, courtesy of a clone.

[sponazgul]

3 hours ago, Forager said:

 

I had a little slow-down on the Portal Corp map that was partially my fault, partially the engine's.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

I smoked the clone in the first room, but I didn't take care to clear that spawn. We got mixed up with some patrols and I left. I guess that's why it didn't spawn the second one. I went

back to the room and cleared it out after searching the whole building. This is a limitation with the system, because as far as I can tell know the "just the boss" option doesn't function correctly. I should remember that, but there is no indication in-game.

 

 

Hey! Thanks! I appreciate the feedback, and I think I can re-engineer that encounter so the slow-down won't happen in the future. Thanks for the details, I know exactly what you're are referring to.

 

I'm glad you liked the arc, especially :

 

Spoiler

I'm glad the Celaestions worked as well as they could. I wanted them to be a relatively tough threat, so the first mission has allies to assist you against them and the final mission you just need to survive their attack long enough to defeat the Prime, and survive long enough for the Prime to fade away, which I guess counts as the defeat and mission end.

 

For some reason I don't understand, the final mission can fail and I am not sure why. It's only happened to me a few times, and I'm glad it didn't happen to you. (The times it has failed for me, I'd already completed the objective that really mattered though, so the mission arc still kind of works, even in failure.)

[sponazgul]

Big thanks to @LordRassilon for playing through Into the YOUniverse this morning on Twitch. I have it queued up to watch, but I did see some bits of the stream, here or there while I was finding the playthrough in the feed.

 

When he was reading clues, to my horror I saw that I had missed fixing a clue, that had the wrong name for one of the major characters in the mission arc -

 

Spoiler

Originally, the villain being hunted and haunted by the interdimensional versions of the player was named Science Mask, a kind of Doctor Doom knockoff. Late last year, I removed Science Mask as a character to replace with the mad scientist Doctor Lasertraps. But I missed a reference to Science Mask in one of the clues. Now I can go on and fix that.

 

I'm looking to watch the full play through - I saw that he had some suggestions about alternate maps for at least one of the missions

 

Spoiler

The Facility where the lobotomized Doctors Lasertraps were kept - I chose the University map because I was imagining it as a dorm setting (even if all of the action happened in the basement of the asylum...) - the text makes reference to it being hellish, but it's not the environment per se, it's the fact that it is full of lobotomized prisoners of the player's variants.

 

I'll give that some thought.

 

I did laugh at one part of the playthrough I saw -

 

Spoiler

In the 3rd mission - the Facility, the team entered and began murdering the harmless and powerless lobotomized Doctors Lasertraps - those wretches have no attacks. They're helpless prisoners. But, sometimes you just have to murder-hobo. Anyway, maybe this is why this didn't seem like a hellscape. Anyway, I could make them untargetable individuals probably, but this is better. 

 

- I'm not sure how much I could have done to restrain the natural impulses of the team.

 

I do appreciate YOUniverse being given a run, and I'm looking forward to running Heart of Words. (I think that's Rassilon's arcs...)