Seeking advice...

[Ultimo]

So, I continue to struggle with the final mission in my WW2 arc.  Set at Guadalcanal, the idea is that the Rikti have gone back in time to give the Japanese the atomic bomb, which Ouroboros is trying to prevent.  At the same time, the US Army has detected the radiation from the bomb, and has sent in several WW2 era heroes, including the player characters, to destroy the Japanese bomb, researchers and research.  During the mission, the players would meet the Ouroboros Mender, and help him to defeat the Rikti and destroy their time portal.

 

The problem is, I'm not sure how to set things up.

 

My first thoughts on the matter are this:

The players enter the mission, told by their contact about the threat of a Japanese bomb.  The Stalwart Star has already gone in, but contact has been lost.  The players must find him if they can... complete his mission either way.  Destroy the bomb and the research, and "sanction" the researchers.  The fight through Japanese patrols, perhaps help out US Troops fighting in the area, and find the Mender, being held by RIKTI.

 

They free the Mender, and he explains that the Rikti are from the future, trying to change history.  He needs their help to destroy the Rikti portal and the Rikti themselves.  THIS is the first issue.

I can't make the Mender a CONTACT.  In a regular mission, I would expect the players to click on him, and a dialog box would open with all the necessary exposition.  AE doesn't let me do that.  I could have it appear as a Clue, but players often ignore those... so I'm not sure how to make this work.

 

The second thing is the selection of map.  Ideally, the map would be some kind of forest/jungle (I've been using Croatoa maps), but would have some kind of underground tunnels they could enter to find the research... but I'm not sure which map, if any, has that.

 

In the end of it, they don't find the Stalwart Star, as he's fallen into the future through the Rikti portal.  The players can't wait for him to return, they need to end the threat and destroy the portal (this is part of the origin story of one of my characters, the Stalwart Star, kind of a Captain America homage).  

 

If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions, I'd welcome them.  Thanks in advance.

[Ankylosaur]

There are two devices that come to mind with the Mender. 

1. What i typically do is use an escort. You get a whole extra line of dialogue, as they say something when they arrive. Escorts come with some other benefits and drawbacks though - so may or may not work for you.
   1. So rescue them, they say something  like "Rikti are from the future! Let's destroy their portal."
   2. You also have some space in a clue, maybe the Mender hands them something, about the Rikti or the portal. "Mender X tells you..." 
   3. and then they say something when they arrive, "The Rikti want the Japanese to win. Let's stop their plot." - or whatever. 
2. If you need more space I saw one arc where the author asked players to right-click the character to get their details. They used the boss description for a longer exposition. It worked for me better than I expected it would.

 

As to maps, you are playing with the exciting unpredictability of outdoor maps! Very few allow you to position a contact in front or back so you have to work around that. The very few that also have interiors do, but they don't fit your scenario at all as described. So your choice is to just use an interior map that serves as the whole research station, or change your location to fit a map like the Croatoa Winter map (maybe northern Japan?)

With the winter map - do all the bomb destruction and non rikti stuff outside the caves, with some required objectives which gives them a chance to find the Mender.

The nice thing about using the Mender as an escort in a case like this is that if he is outside the winter caves, his destination can be inside the caves, helping you guide your player to the location, and it helps get around the issue of finding the escort's destination before you find the escort. Ice caves make for a pretty undesirable research location - but maybe rikti and a few rikti props like computers or portal stabilizers make it feel more rikti-lived-in.

Bonus tip - if you want a tech-based alternative to the typical portal options, I often use the "Reinforced Door" you can find in the Longbow mob. Create a Boss, add the Reinforced door from the Longbow mob and surround it with Rikti. It is the cell door you would find in a Longbow base if you died and went to the Hospital there, and i think it being in the mob is why only the Longbow prison cells work on maps with cells (they don't work for council, 5th column, or cot maps)

Edited 9 hours ago by Ankylosaur

[Darmian]

Possibly adapting one of @Ankylosaur' ideas for outdoor maps would be to have an optional series of hologrammatic versions of the Mender that each lead to the next one in the chain, each one dropping some part of the needed exposition, until finally the last one leads you to the actual Mender.  Fiddly to do but not impossible.

 

As to maps?  Oh, limits.  Or...if you hand wave something about time being in flux and warping the surrounding area, you COULD use the Nemesis Shadow Shard Base.  Maybe.