Wonderland Mori - From Start to Finish
By
Bubbawheat,
Posted on: 2010-03-23 20:08 in Mission Architect
Now, with such a complicated structure and plot, I intend on using all five mission slots. As with my most popular arc, which has a related structure - the time loop, the first two missions are important to set up the concept for someone who hasn't seen Memento before. I'm tempted to use another concept from Memento and have the "final" boss in the first mission be your contact, which is something that's also often used in other players' AE arcs.
I need to use a small map so as not to spend too much time establishing the structure of the arc, such as a casino or bank. But I also want to be able to add objectives in the second mission so it's not overly repetitive. I think one of the larger bank maps might work out nicely.
Mechanics
Mission 1: Single boss battle with dialog.
Mission 2: A couple events - ally?/boss?/patrols? - ending with chained boss battle with the exact same dialog from Mission 1.
The story:
I don't think I want to copy Memento too much, so I don't want to do a murder mystery, but I definitely want to have some sort of mystery involved. And when Alice in Wonderland is the theme, the go to mystery is the tale of the tarts. This will require the use of some customs - The Knave of Hearts, the Queen of Hearts, possibly the King of Hearts, as well as a small selection of card guards. I might be able to mix in a few recolored standard mobs to fill out the group and save space, as I'm looking at a five mission arc, and don't want to spend all my space before double filesize gets here. I also have already made Alice, The White Rabbit, the White Queen, The March Hare, and the Mad Hatter, so I might use some of those as well.
A bit short on time, so I'm just setting up some early groundwork for a skeleton mission framework for the first two missions, since I feel that getting those two missions right is crucial to the success of the arc as a whole. Ok, it's ending up being even less than that, just choosing the map for the first two missions.
Map: Unique Maps -> Banks -> 22nd National Bank 01
5 allowed boss/ambush/patrol/destroy
2 allowed ally/rescue/escort
1 allowed floor collection (back) - I'm assuming inside vault.
Quote:
It's funny how much time you can throw away looking for the right map, isn't it? I know I've spent over an hour (more than once!) going down through every "Sewers - City Of Heroes", "medium" and then every Sewers - City Of Villains", "Medium" before. |
Originally Posted by Bubbawheat
A bit short on time, so I'm just setting up some early groundwork for a skeleton mission framework for the first two missions...
Ok, it's ending up being even less than that, just choosing the map for the first two missions. |
I usually make a list like "2, 7, 13, 14" of ones that look right from the layout and then setting them in place and walking in to make sure I like what I chose.
I realize this is also seems like it might be a bit of a guide to someone that wants to write an arc but only has short amounts of time to work on it. Another mini-update - I worked out a costume and powerset combo for the Knave of Hearts who is a boss in the first (and currently only) mission. His lines of dialog come off confused as to why he's being attacked. I will be re-using these lines in mission 2 to set up the rest of the arc.
Ok today I added a touch more to this arc. I finally added a second mission on the same map as the first mission, and another tie in to the first mission.
The second mission has you fighting the <Wonderland> group and rescuing the Knave of Hearts and recovering the Queen's proclamation declaring that he stole her tarts and it's now "off with his head!"
I slightly adjusted the mission intro for the first mission to have you reading the proclamation that you will get in the second mission and attacking the Knave of Hearts, carrying out the Queen's orders.
Arc #380533
Current status:
2 missions with minimal story and wonderland customs.
# of costumes: 6
% space used: 42.57%
I started this before, but I lost my account, lost momentum, then lost interest. And now I'm trying again. This thread is my attempt to chronicle my next arc from concept to completion. Comments, suggestions, and discussion are all welcome in this thread as well.
My idea this time is that I wanted to recreate the structure of the movie Memento in the Mission Architect. I would like to craft a complex tale of mystery with a plotline that works in the aforementioned structure. And I want to do it all using Alice and Wonderland as a backdrop theme to it. It sounds like a big undertaking to pull this off well, but I hope I'm up to the task.
Now I'm not always conventional when it comes to writing. I don't often use an outline, I often keep most of it in my head until it's all ready to come out. But we'll see how this goes.